They Say It's Your Birthday
by ice princess deluxe
Summary: Collection of one-shots written for quitethecouple members' birthdays
1. Escape Artistry

Title: Escape Artistry

Challenge(s): _scarf, escape, tie_ and _break, catch, hero_

Rating: PG

Summary: He always knew that scarf would wind up making trouble. He never thought it'd help get them out of it.

Note: Also a belated happy birthday ficlet for prettygothgirl

Blanket disclaimer: Rikku, Gippal, and Spira don't belong to me. Property of Square.

Note the second: All chapters here are one-shots unless specifically stated otherwise.

* * *

"So you _had_ to wear that stupid scarf, didn't you?" Gippal wasn't feeling on top of his game. Being kidnapped by bandits – and only a handful of miles from Djose, which rankled his pride more than anything; his security was _better_ that that – and knocked unconscious didn't do anything to improve his mood. To make matters worse, one of the bandits had hit him on the left side of his head. His eye was already starting to swell shut, leaving him practically blind.

To his right, Rikku grunted and shifted, her back bumping into his knees. "It's _not_ a stupid scarf," she muttered, twisting some more. The bandits had tied her hands behind her back and he could feel her fingers grasp onto his pants, using the material as leverage to help her sit up. She was breathing heavily after the struggle, but Gippal felt the feathery brush of her hair against his sore cheek as she rested her head against his shoulder. "Are you okay?"

He rubbed his cheek against her hair without thinking, hissing when pain blossomed across his face. "Just peachy."

"You always were a horrible liar."

"I know. I left that part up to you." He winced at her sharp intake of breath.

"They really did a number on you," she whispered. "Stay still." He could feel her moving against him again, then nothing.

"Rikku?" Damn, but he hated feeling helpless. He twisted his hands in the metal cuffs that the bandits had slapped on him and pulled against them to no avail. Even if he were able to painfully dislocate his thumbs, the cuffs were too tight to slide his hands through. Plus there was the fact that his ankles were shackled as well, so even if he did get his hands free, he would still be unable to walk. He was stuck. By sheer luck, it had turned out that his were the only restraints available. Smart girl that she was, Rikku had played the ditzy, yet eager to cooperate captive and had only been pushed around a little bit before being tied up with her own brightly colored scarf.

"Does that feel better?" she asked, her voice near his ear. Turning his head, he saw that she was leaning against the wall, a satisfied smile on her lips. _Wait a minute,_ he thought. _I can see?_

"What did you do?"

She shrugged. "Yunie wasn't the only Gullwing that knew how to cast a decent cure spell. I didn't heal it all the way, just in case one of the idiots that left us here came back before we could make a break for it."

"And just how are we going to make our great escape?" He had a couple of versions formulating in his head, but by the determined set of Rikku's jaw, he knew she already had everything figured out and would argue with him until they did things her way. In an effort to save time, he filed away the plan to play dead and then surprise attack one of the bandits in order to steal their handcuff keys for any other time that the situation might come up.

"You're going to untie me."

Gippal sighed. "And how are we going to do that?" He jiggled his hands behind his back, making the metal jingle.

"Oh come on, you've untied knots in the dark before. This will be just like it. I'd do it myself, but my fingers can't reach." She scooted closer to him, making them both wince when the back of her head hit his. "Can you get it?"

Gippal extended his fingers as far as they possibly could. He could feel the smooth ovals of her fingernails, then the heavy knit of her scarf. "Who the hell taught them to tie knots?" he wondered. "They're all tangled." He pulled again, but soon stopped.

"They're stuck, aren't they?"

"From this angle, yep." He felt Rikku lean her head against his back. He was about to open his mouth and suggest that Rikku make a run for it, seeing that her feet were unbound, but she flopped to her side. "What are you doing?"

She grunted, but didn't answer him. He turned his head as far as it could go behind his shoulder and watched as she flipped herself onto her stomach. She spat out a mouthful of hair that had gotten into her way and started to arch her back.

"I can see up your skirt." He really couldn't, but he didn't see any reason to let the sight of her behind sticking up in the air go without comment.

"Shut up. I'm concentrating." Gippal heard her shoulders pop and watched as she arched her back so that the big knot at her wrists slid underneath her bottom. She turned to her side and pulled her knees up to her chest, still wiggling her shoulders. Using one foot then the other, she moved so that her arms were now tied in front of her.

"Never pegged you for being so flexible," he told her, grinning. She rolled her eyes at him and tried to catch her breath. Raising her wrists to her mouth, she used her teeth to pick at the dense nest of knots. She didn't bother with getting them completely undone, just loose enough so she could move her hands around better.

"It's one of my many hidden talents," she replied, searching through her braids until she pulled out a barrette from somewhere underneath her bandanna. Gippal finally saw that it wasn't an actual barrette, but a set of lock picks. "This is another one of them."

His arms fell to his sides as the handcuffs were unlocked. "My hero," he murmured, rubbing his wrists with his hands and flexing his ankles.

She tilted her head to the side, beads and braids spilling over her shoulder. "I like the sound of that." The playful smile fell from her face and she sat very still when Gippal unknotted her scarf. Bending his head, he touched his lips first to one wrist, then to the other, both of them red and raw from her contortionist act.

"When I catch the people responsible…" He didn't finish the sentence, but Rikku could see the malicious intent written clearly on his face.

She reached out and put her fingers against his still slightly swollen eye. Muttering a cure spell under her breath, she slid her fingers through the hair at his temple. "Who's the hero now?" she asked lightly. "Come on, let's get out of here."

He watched as she stood up and turned in the direction of Djose. "And who's gonna stop these jerks?"

She looked at him behind her shoulder. "Wouldn't it be a surprise when they come back and find not just two captives here, but a whole crew? I say we head back to the temple, grab a couple of people, and make it back before they realize we were gone in the first place."

He stood up and came up beside her. Winding the thoroughly wrinkled knit around her neck where it belonged, he threw an arm around her shoulders. "I like the way you think, Cid's girl."


	2. Diversions and Distractions

Title: Diversions and Distractions

Rating: PG

Summary: Someone has to bring you up for air sometimes, Gippal.

Note: Happy birthday ladynicole!

* * *

"What are you doing?"

The question was asked in a syrupy-sweet voice that could only mean one thing: trouble. Gippal looked up from his desk – and the massive amounts of paperwork on top of it that were currently the reason he had a pounding headache – and tilted his head.

"Working. You know, the thing that you do if you want to earn gil?" Well, he had actually been spacing out, the numbers and names on each document swimming before his tired eye. He just wasn't going to tell her that. "What have _you_ been doing?"

Rikku grinned. "Plotting fiendishly plotty things." She perched on the edge of his desk, the only available spot that was free of clutter. "I've decided you need a break."

He sat back, his chair squeaking at the shift of weight. "Is that so? And since when have you been the boss of me?"

She leaned towards him. "I guess you didn't get that memo, did you?" Picking up a half-finished mug of coffee, she swirled the contents around, her lip curling up when the muck at the bottom stuck to the mug. "Jeez, when do you let people clean in here? This is practically fossilized."

"You could always volunteer."

"No way. The clutter monster would probably attack me." She hopped off his desk and grabbed his hand. "Seriously, come on outside with me. You've been cooped up all day and I'm bored." She tugged at his arm, but all that happened was that her boots slid on the stone floor of his office.

Gippal tugged on her arm, sending her sprawling into his lap. "And I'm your personal source of entertainment?" he murmured, wrapping his arms around her and resting his chin on her shoulder.

She made a noise of agreement, snuggling closer in his embrace. "But of course. Now are we going to get out of here or what?"

He grumbled, but let her lead him outside. They skirted past the workers tinkering with machine parts, stopping to say hello and exchange brief words. Hand in hand, they walked over the bridges linking Djose to the rest of the main road. He wondered where she was taking him when they started to climb up a rocky, barely used pathway.

They stopped when they reached upward as the path would take them. There was a thick blanket already laid out, a woven basket weighing it down on the ground nearby. "You had all of this planned, didn't you?" he asked, looking out at the scenery. From the cliff they were standing on, he could see the ocean, the sun starting to dip under the waves, turning the water a vibrant crimson.

She wrapped her arms around his waist. "I _told_ you I was plotting evil, plotty things all day."

He dropped a kiss onto the top of her head. "Any particular reason, or you just felt like it?"

She frowned. "What's today?"

"Thursday." Which meant that he had to get payroll finished so that his workers could get their weekly wages the next day. It also meant that he had to get in contact with a metal vendor if he was going to get the next shipment of hovers built in time for his contract with Rin's travel agency to be met.

"Anything else besides Thursday?" She poked him in the side with a finger. "Anything _special_?"

"Nope." Then he froze. "Aw, crap. I missed one of those stupid meetings that Baralai always springs at the last minute, didn't I?"

She sighed. "No, but that's not what I meant."

"What then?"

"You're twenty-four today, you big dork."

He blinked, then mentally brought up a calendar. "That's next week."

"No, it's today. I can't believe you forgot." She stepped away from him and rolled her eyes. "And I even went through the trouble to bake you a cake and everything. Nooo, you have to forget all about it. Just as well, since part of the cake turned out crispier than the others and I covered it with extra icing but I think you can still tell the difference…"

Gippal stopped her tirade the easiest way he knew how. When he let them both up for air, he gently framed the sides of her face with his fingers. "Thanks for remembering," he whispered, brushing his lips against hers.

"Someone has to remember important details like this," she retorted, rocking up on her tiptoes to kiss him better. "Otherwise you'd keep your head stuck in your paperwork all the time."

"That's why I have you to drag me out every so often." He looked again at the blanket and basket containing the questionably burned cake. Then he thought of the mountain of work that would more than likely keep him up until very early the next morning to complete. Hooking his longer leg around Rikku's ankle, he sent them both sprawling to the ground, rolling at the last minute so he took the brunt of the fall.

_Work can wait_, he thought, tunneling his hands through the thick gold mass of Rikku's hair.


	3. Keraunophobia

Title: Keraunophobia

Rating: PG

Challenge: rain, break, saved

Summary: So maybe she didn't tell Yuna _exactly_ how she'd gotten over her fear.

Note: Happy birthday, tofadeawayagain!

* * *

"Remind me again why we're out here," Rikku said, shivering in her wet clothes. She _hated_ the Thunder Plains. It was cold, windy, and miserably rainy _all the time_, not to mention that there was a high probability of getting hit by lightning if one strayed from the protective towers.

"You were the one that wanted to get over your fear of lightning," Gippal replied, shivering right next to her. His chest ached and he fought to put a hand over the healed bullet wound to soothe the hurt. It had been almost a year since it had happened, but the shiny, puckered patch of skin always gave him hell whenever he was in extreme climates for a long amount of time.

"I still don't know why we have to be _here_ to do that." A rumble of thunder sounded, followed soon by a bright flash of lightning. The ground sizzled several feet away from them and Rikku buried her face in her hands, her shoulders shaking.

Warm fingers touched her bare arm. She turned into his hug and pressed her face against his shirt. At seventeen, Gippal had gone through what was probably his last growth spurt, which was good for her. She already had to look up to speak to him face to face, and if he had grown any taller, she'd have a constant kink in her neck. It felt good to be with him again. Traveling Spira to show everyone how to use machina had inadvertently brought her to his doorstep one day. They'd laughed, embraced and caught up on everything that had happened in their lives since they had left Bikanel to go on their respective ways. Rikku had a feeling Gippal had been leaving a lot out of his version, but couldn't help being impressed with the skeletal beginnings of his Machine Faction. Where she was going to people's doors to get them used to the once taboo subject, Gippal was creating a place for people to gather. Knowing him, it would be a hit one of these days.

"Where else are we going to find a constant stream of lightning?" he asked, his voice somewhat muffled as he bent his head to rest his cheek on her hair. Saved from the rain by the lightning tower they were under, he scanned the horizon for any signs of fiends. They hadn't come across many so far, which was lucky. Fighting in mud wasn't his idea of a fun time, especially against fiends that loved to throw out thunderbolts. Even if they both wore items Rikku had personally customized to deflect lightning damage – "I'm not going anywhere _near_ that place otherwise," she had told him before they had set out – the shock of one of the bolts hitting and then being deflected off was something that he wanted to avoid.

"You know thunder spells."

Gippal rolled his eyes. "Yeah, like anybody could get me to cast one at Cid's girl." _His girl,_ he thought adamantly, remembering all the hidden passageways at Home where he and Rikku often stole off to for pressing kisses and hesitant sweeps of fingers against skin when they were still kids. They weren't so young anymore, and even though he hadn't tried anything with her yet, he was aching to find out if her lips tasted just as sweet as he remembered them to.

Another crack of thunder and subsequent flash of lightning struck. It was closer this time, the tower absorbing it. Rikku made a distressed noise at the back of her throat and burrowed closer to him, her fingers bunching up in the fabric of his shirt. He held her shaking body tighter to his side with one arm, using his free hand to tilt her face up to him.

"I can't believe the girl who went up against Sin is scared of a little light and noise." His fingers cupped her chin firmly. "What happened to that brave guardian everybody keeps talking about?"

She huffed. "Oh, like I tease you about that fear you have of cactuars every chance I can."

"Hey, those things shoot needles. That _hurts_."

"Poor baby, don't you know that those things are probably more scared of us than we are of them? Why do you think they run away so fast?"

"Then it's a good thing that we're not trying to break me of my big bad fear of them, is it?"

She shivered again, huddling against him for warmth and ignoring the way her feet squished in her wet boots. "If we were, we'd be _dry_." She smoothed her fingers out over his shirt and tapped his chest in a random pattern. "Why don't we just forget about this and head to the desert to work on that fear instead?"

He laughed. "No way, you're not getting out of this that easily." Another flash lit up her face, making her squeeze her eyes shut. "Look at me."

She opened her eyes when she felt his fingers slide from her chin to her cheek. He licked his lips and moved closer, his thumb tracing her bottom lip. She let her eyes close again while he kissed her, her arms moving up to circle around his neck. His hand moved from her cheek to her shoulder and down, the warmth radiating from his skin welcome against her cold back. A crack of thunder made her jump, but the way Gippal's lips slanted against her mouth and the firm hold he had on her took her mind away from the lightning that followed.

"Notice the lightning?" he whispered, his nose nudging hers.

Her fingers slid through his hair. "Not really," she whispered back, stretching up on tiptoe to better align her body against his. A flash of light illuminated their temporary shelter. "Maybe just a little bit." This time it wasn't the lightning that had her shivering in his arms.

He grinned. "Then we're going to have to work on getting you cured, aren't we?" Rikku laughed against his lips before kissing him back, her fingers locking behind his neck. What small portion of her brain that wasn't busy being thoroughly distracted idly wondered what other fears she could persuade him to help her get over.


	4. Kisses and Near Misses

Title: Kisses and Near Misses

Rating: PG-13

Challenge(s): first kiss; rapture, capture, cling

Summary: They don't consider the first time they kissed to be their first kiss.

Note: Happy birthday, siilentfall!

Note times two: This was supposed to be an overly fluffy short one-shot that the plot bunnies took and ran with.

* * *

Rikku doesn't consider the first time she kissed Gippal to be their first kiss. She had been thirteen to his fourteen and had been innocently walking around Home, minding her own business. Sure, maybe she might have _finally_ developed where she didn't have to stuff her bra with rags – not that she'd ever done it out in public, because from the privacy of her own room she could tell that she'd never be able to pull the look off – and yes, maybe a couple of boys her age were finally noticing that she had legs that didn't come with gawky, bony knees. It still didn't give Gippal any right to grab her and kiss her in front of all their friends. She _did_ feel justified for biting him and the shocked look in his eye as she had stomped off had been satisfaction enough for her.

Still, it had taken her an entire week before she had gathered enough nerve to look him in the eye again without breaking into a fierce blush.

* * *

Gippal doesn't consider the first time he kissed Rikku to be their first kiss. He had been fourteen to her thirteen and fed up with all the leers and jests the other boys were throwing in her direction when she was out of earshot. It wasn't like she was wearing anything different or acting strangely, but it was as if someone had turned on a bright neon sign above her head that said 'look at me' that hadn't previously been there before. Yes, her legs had filled out after a recent growth spurt – she was still puny and barely reached his shoulder – and no, he wasn't ashamed to admit he had ogled her newly developed chest area with the avid interest of a hormonal teenager. It still didn't give any of the other guys the right to do so, or to hoot out lewd comments they'd heard other men around Home say about other women.

So he did the only thing he knew to do: he grabbed her by the shoulders and planted one on her, just so the other guys knew she was his girl and that he'd deck anyone that said anything about her while he was in hearing range. He could only stare at her in shock, wiping at his bloody lip after she bit him. Their friends had fallen over laughing at him while he stood there watching her stomp away.

She didn't talk to him for a whole week after that.

* * *

Rikku doesn't consider the second time she kissed Gippal to be their first kiss. He had been sixteen to her fifteen and headed out to join the Crimson Squad. So many things had gone through her mind; what if he got hurt along the way? Who would look after him – because she _knew_ that he needed looking after; if left alone to his own devices, who knew _what_ trouble he might manage to get himself into – and who would he have to talk to?

More importantly, who would _she_ have to talk to? They'd been part of a cohesive unit for years, Rikku and Gippal, Gippal and Rikku. There wasn't a day that went by that she didn't see him or vice versa. It wasn't like she couldn't survive without him, but that she'd be incredibly lonely doing so.

He must have felt the same, because the night before he set out, he snuck into her bedroom. She pretended to be surprised. They hadn't talked much, just held the other and shared desperate kisses, with her clinging to him as if she was trying to imprint the feel of his body on hers into her mind. He woke her up in the morning, pressing a gentle kiss to her forehead. She smiled, even if she could feel the unspoken goodbye linger between them.

They didn't need to say anything and she didn't watch him as he left her room.

* * *

He doesn't consider the second time he kissed Rikku to be their first kiss. It had been filled with too many goodbyes to be the foundation of an actual relationship. She had been fifteen to his sixteen at the time and trying hard to hide from him the fact that she was going to be leaving to become a guardian. It had been pointless for her to do: he had ears; he knew what she had been talking about with her father. What if she got hurt along the way? Who would look after her – and he _knew_ that she needed looking after; if left to her own devices, who knew _what_ she might wind blowing up – and who would she talk to?

He knew that he could make it on his own; he was a tough guy after all. It was Rikku that he worried about. They had been their own team, Gippal and Rikku, Rikku and Gippal, for so long that striking out on his own felt strange. It was just the idea that she'd be doing the same without someone she trusted watching her back that put him off balance.

That was the reasoning behind breaking into her bedroom that last night before he left. It was also why he had captured her mouth with his desperately, trying his best to memorize how warm and soft the skin at her waist felt under his hands, how silky her hair felt running through his fingers. He had woken up early the next morning, just staring at her as she slept beside him, and he knew he couldn't leave without seeing her awake one last time. He'd kissed her on the forehead, just to see her smile, but that in itself was a sort of goodbye.

They didn't need to say anything and he never looked back as he left her room.

* * *

She _does_ consider the third time she kissed Gippal to be their first kiss. He'd been eighteen to her seventeen and already a leader of his own faction. So much for wanting to stay out of politics, like he had always said to her; just because he was a neutral party didn't mean that he was entirely out of the loop. The first time she had seen him after two years apart had made the air in her chest clog up. He'd gotten taller and leaner, she wondered if he was eating like he should. There were faint dark circles under his eye, the patch he wore covering up the other. She had ached to jump into his arms and kiss him breathless, but had clenched her fists at her sides and had decided to follow his lead to see where he would take their relationship. If she had been disappointed by the fact that he hadn't grabbed her like she had hoped he would, she hid it well.

Months after Vegnagun's defeat, she had been sent on an errand by her father to Djose to solidify a contract deal with Gippal. He'd been aloof the last time she had seen him, so she decided to put away childish dreams and act as businesslike as she knew how. It hurt that he would treat her like that after all they had gone through together when they were younger, but she tried not to let it show.

She just couldn't hide her surprise when Gippal had pinned her to his office door and knocked her breath away yet again. After recovering from the shock, she had kissed him back, laughing as he held onto her with one arm while walking backwards further into the room and sweeping the contents of his desk off the surface with the other.

"Hello there," she whispered, tracing his face with shaky fingers, lingering over his mouth. He kissed her again, and it was like the years apart hadn't ever happened.

* * *

He _doesn't_ consider the third time he kissed Rikku to be their first kiss. It was too hot, too full of need, too much of everything to be his idea of the start of anything new between them. If anything, it felt as if it picked up where they had left off two years ago, with a big helping of 'I missed you' added in.

When he first saw her after two years apart, she had stolen his breath away. She had been seventeen to his eighteen and sexy beyond description. Gone were the last traces of childhood roundness to her features, replaced with soft curves and exotic planes. She was tanned and lean with mile long legs – how she accomplished that feat while still only reaching to barely his shoulder was beyond him – that had made his hands itch to run down them. It took all he had not to grab her by her barely there wardrobe and kiss her, damned if they had an audience or not. He hadn't though, putting his hands behind his back instead and following her lead to see where she would take their relationship. If he'd been disappointed by the fact that she hadn't jumped into his arms like he had hoped she would, he hid it well.

Months after Vegnagun's defeat, he had conned Cid into getting Rikku back up to Djose on a false pretext. There was no contract to negotiate over, but then again, Gippal wasn't above using sneak tactics to see his girl. And she _was_ his girl, whether she knew it or not.

He hadn't been able to keep his hands to himself after all, pinning her to the door of his office as soon as she had closed it behind her. He had stared down at her in rapture as she not only wrapped her arms and legs around him, but had answered his kisses with just as much heat as his own, if not more. Her laughter against his mouth as he had blindly swept all the items off his desk had been welcome, something that had been missing in his life for too long.

"Hello there," she had said, her hands on the sides of his face. He had replied with another kiss, feeling as if two years had never happened.

* * *

There had been many, many other times that Gippal had kissed Rikku, but it was the one he shared with her on a cold evening that he considered to be their first. She had been thirty to his thirty-one and had just come back from a trip to Gagazet. He hadn't wanted to wait for her to get back to Djose, so he'd met her at the bottom of the mountain. Over the years they'd been friends and then eventually lovers. Every so often they'd bicker and then break up, only to make up again. They would spend months together some times and then be apart for months at a time. Neither of them had demanded it, but they had stopped seeing other people years ago, back when they were still teenagers and just starting to figure out who the other was.

He watched as she made her way down to him, her arms wrapped around her for warmth and a beaming smile on her face. Their time apart had shrunk down from months away to weeks, to now where even a day without seeing the other felt strange. It had taken some time, but they were back to their old team of Gippal and Rikku, Rikku and Gippal.

"I didn't think I'd see you until later tonight," she told him, sliding her hands up his chest and linking her fingers behind his head. He grinned down at her and rubbed his hands slowly up and down her back, loving the way she shivered under his fingers that had nothing to do with the cold.

"Maybe I missed you," he answered, lowering his head to hers so their noses touched. His hands went from her back to her waist, finally stopping at the gentle curve of her stomach, where as he put it, a future engineer sat.

Her hand covered his, the wedding band cold against his skin. She seldom wore it, seeing that with their work it could get caught on any number of mechanical bits, but whenever he saw it on her hand; he couldn't stop the rush of pride that went through him. "Well, maybe I missed you too," she replied, standing up on tiptoe to press her lips against his. It was soft and sweet and full of the love that they shared for one another.

It was like coming home.


	5. Resolutions

Title: Resolutions

Rating: G

Summary: Because hearing Brother drunkenly sing raunchy songs at the top of his lungs wasn't her idea of a good time.

Note: Happy Birthday theoreticalpixy!

* * *

The sound of tinkering in the workshop wasn't out of the ordinary. The sound of tinkering in a workshop supposedly devoid of other workers was. Seeing that Gippal had given everyone else the night and following day off, he wondered who was still working.

He got his answer as soon as he walked inside. There, at the very back workstation, sat Rikku with her back to him. He stood there and watched her for a while, his head cocked to the side as he leaned against the doorframe. At twenty-five, she'd abandoned the little bikini top she'd worn at seventeen for a reddish orange halter top. It covered more skin than the bikini had, but was surprisingly ten times more intriguing to him than the skimpy excuse for a top had ever been. He let his gaze go over her from the top of her ponytail to the tips of her boots, pausing appreciatively in the spaces in between.

"So you just come in here without telling me hello first?" He couldn't help buy grin at the way she jumped, the tool in her hand clattering to the tabletop.

"I didn't think you'd be here," she said, picking up the screwdriver and continuing her work. "It's New Year's Eve, don't you have some hot date?"

"Nope." He walked behind her and looked over her shoulder. "Whatcha working on?"

She grew very still for a second or two before relaxing again. "Power converter on the Celsius blew out and we didn't have the right tool aboard. I didn't think you'd mind."

"I don't. Just let me know when you're around; I miss talking to you." Rikku's cheeks and tips of her ears flushed in the bright overhead task lighting as he continued. "What about you? Aren't you seeing that guy from Kilika? Whatshisname? How come you're not out at some party with him?"

Rikku rolled her eyes. "That ended months ago; I'm not with anyone any more." She turned on the stool until she was facing him, her work forgotten momentarily. "Besides, I didn't feel like doing much this year, especially when we're docked in Luca." While hanging around Buddy and slinging back a few drinks amid the crowds was always fun, hauling a tipsy Brother out of Luca's fountains while he sang raunchy Al Bhed songs at the top of his lungs as he tried to strip wasn't on the top of her _things Rikku loves to do_ list. She'd had to do it once before and wasn't too terribly interested in doing it again.

"So you just decided to come hang out here?"

She leaned into the arm that he had thrown casually over her shoulder. "Yep." He smelled like leather and fuel, a combination that she'd identified as his since they'd been kids.

Gippal brushed the side of his cheek against her hair. It was as soft as it had always been and smelled faintly like fruit of some sort. Just like always, there were tiny braids worked in here and there. His fingers itched to undo them just so he could see how her hair looked down her shoulders, wavy in some places and straight in others. He'd always known about the crush she had harbored on him though he didn't do anything to encourage her. He had been flattered, though he really didn't see her as the type he usually dated. She was more of a friend than anything, one of the guys he could joke around with that just happened to have breasts.

It was only when she had suddenly stopped trying to flirt with him and started dating other men that he realized just how nice her breasts actually were. He'd also started realizing just how nice everything else about her was. She spent more time in Kilika than Djose, stopping by for a brief hello every once and a while when she wasn't off hunting spheres with her brother and Gippal couldn't help but feel jealous, especially when she went on and on about how great her boyfriend was. He usually tuned her out after the first fifteen minutes or so, concentrating on the way her mouth moved and the comforting rhythm her voice fell into as she talked instead. He found himself flirting with her even more so than usual and looking forward to her visits more than someone labeled _just a friend_ should. Then one day while she was working alongside him, he realized that he had fallen in love with her. It had happened so gradually over the years that the realization had taken him unawares.

She'd neatly turned the tables on him and she didn't even know it.

He cleared his throat, straightening up and moving his arm off her shoulder. "Well, since you're here, you want to help a guy out with a few things?" he asked, leaning against the table.

Several hours later saw them up to their elbows in parts from a digging machine that would hopefully prove to be more efficient than the models Gippal had out in the desert already. The newer digger would free up workers for other parts of the Faction while still generating new jobs. The prototype wouldn't make people obsolete and work could be finished in half the time. It was a win-win situation.

"Huh, will you look at that," Rikku said, pointing to the horizon. Far off, they could see dim bursts from fireworks.

"Probably Rin on the Highroad. Luca's too far away to see their show." He pulled out his pocket watch. "And it is officially midnight."

Rikku stretched, rubbing her hands on a rag. "Happy New Year," she said, still looking at the very faint firework display.

He watched her for a second before leaning over. He wasn't seeing anyone and she had just confessed that she was single, so he decided to throw caution to the wind. "Happy New Year," he replied, brushing his lips against hers. It was the briefest of kisses, but Rikku stared back at him with a questioning look on her face before cupping the back of his head in her hand and kissing him back, this time longer. She sighed against his mouth and let out a stuttering breath when he nibbled her top lip.

"Any resolutions this year?" she asked, her fingers tracing the collar of his shirt.

"Yeah."

"Oh? And what are they?"

He smirked, his hands tightening on her waist. "I resolve to kiss you as often as I possibly can."

She laughed before going up on tiptoes so that her lips were at his ear. He couldn't suppress a shiver when he felt her breath on his skin. "Then I guess it's my job to see that you keep your promises."


	6. A Sticky Situation

Title: A Sticky Situation

Rating: PG

Challenge: tricky, picky, sticky

Words: 605

Summary: "You're too picky, that's what your problem is."

Note: Happy birthday rippalislove!

* * *

"I'm hungry."

"You're always hungry." Rikku rolled over on the blanket so she was on her stomach. Dipping her hand in the basket they had brought with them, she fished out an apple. "There's food still in there."

"I don't want apples." Gippal was on his back, enjoying the rarity that was a day off. Leaders of the Machine Faction were needed most of the time, especially during heavy installation phases, he had argued, but Rikku had countered that girlfriends had more say in when said leaders needed to take some time off, especially when they were working way more hours than was deemed healthy.

And since Rikku had been mostly naked while they had debated, Gippal had been quick to let her win.

"You're too picky, that's what your problem is," Rikku said. They had taken a ship to Kilika, taking advantage of the good weather to go on a picnic. Rikku had shown him a secret path she, Yuna, and Paine had found years ago that led to a small clearing overlooking the entire port town.

Gippal reached out, grabbing Rikku by her waist and tugging until she was sprawled over his chest. He grinned lazily up at her before playing with a braid that hung down in front of him. "I call it being a man of discerning tastes."

She poked at his chest with her index finger; even as she leaned down to kiss him. "And I still say you're picky." She sighed when one of his h ands slid under her shirt and stroked her back. "But now that you mention it, I'm a little hungry too. We didn't pack dessert."

Gippal was going to make a comment about how he thought she _was_ the dessert when Rikku stood up. "Where are you going?"

"I know just the thing. Stay here, I'll be right back."

Gippal lay back and listened to the sounds of the jungle. Between the late afternoon sun and lunch, it wasn't hard to fall asleep. He didn't know how long he had been out when he felt someone come close. Opening his eye a crack, he saw Rikku licking her fingers. She held something in her other hand, which she dropped into the now empty canister that had once held pre-cut fruit.

"What did you get?" he asked, reclining on an elbow.

"Only the finest Kilika honey," she said. "I knew I had seen a hive nearby when we first got here."

"You got this out of a beehive?"

"Well, yeah. Where else did you think honey came from?" She held out her arms. "And see? Not a single bee sting."

"I'm not even going to ask how."

She plopped down next to him, offering the container. "It was pretty tricky. I cast a sleep spell on all the bees and then reached in to take a comb. You have to be careful though; you take too much and the whole hive collapses."

He couldn't help but think how cute she looked. Somehow, she had gotten a thin string of honey stuck to her cheek. Without giving any warning, he leaned over and licked it away. "Now you're all sticky," he murmured, his hand at her waist.

"You are too," she replied, brushing a honey-coated finger over his lips. She kissed him then, savoring the sweet taste of the honey combined with a flavor that was wholly Gippal.

"Then we better do something about that, shouldn't we?" They both laughed as Gippal rolled them over onto the blanket, his free hand reaching for more of the honey to drizzle over any exposed skin he could find.


	7. Man Made Blizzard

Title: Man-Made Blizzard

Rating: G

Challenge: towel, snowflake, free

Summary: "That doesn't look like snow."

Note: Happy birthday mandyiam! This turned from Gippal/Rikku to more of a Gippal and Rin snippet set sometime before Of Bad Gil Pieces and Airships.

* * *

"Um, what are you doing?" Gippal balanced himself on one foot, a piece of string in his hand. The stool he was standing on wobbled precariously. He gave Rikku a look that all but screamed _isn't it_ obvious _what I'm doing?_

"Making snow." Sweat rolled down the side of his face and he decided to ignore the sudden nine-year-old irritation that had entered his room. And what was she doing in his house in the first place? She had one of her own, complete with two older brothers to pick on if she really wanted to.

Rikku watched from the doorway as Gippal stuck his tongue out in concentration. "That doesn't look like snow."

"Yeah? And how would _you_ know?"

She sputtered before jamming both hands on her hips. "You don't either!"

"Yes I do."

"No you don't."

"Yes," He tied the string onto a bar of his ceiling. "I do. Rin showed me some he brought back from Machalania. He's been _everywhere_ in Spira."

Jealousy quickly flushed Rikku's cheeks. More than anything, she wanted to go to the places that Rin and the others that ventured away from Home talked about. The closest she'd ever been away was to the shores of Bikanel, where if she imagined hard enough, she could see the lands that went beyond the sea.

"That's not a snowflake," she defiantly said, pointing to the many strings Gippal had already tied around the room. "That's just pieces of material you balled up."

"It is too a snowflake," he protested, hopping down from the stool. "Rin said that each one was different." He couldn't hide the admiration in his voice. It wasn't just because Rin always hung around his house or that he was dating Gippal's mother either. The man actually _listened_ to Gippal when so many other adults just treated him like any other kid. He taught him things too, spending free time in the afternoons when he was around to go over the Spiran language that everyone outside of Bikanel spoke. It was much different than Al Bhed, but Rin went slowly so that Gippal never got lost. It was kind of neat, like they had a secret language that many others around them didn't understand. Gippal's mother Lina understood it perfectly, but she never sat in on any of the lessons, saying something about letting men bond together without a woman's influence, even as she gave both of their foreheads a kiss. Rin always laughed and winked at her before turning back to the book full of Spiran fables he wanted Gippal to help decipher for their lesson.

Rin also knew that Gippal had a head for math, so sometimes he let Gippal practice balancing the many ledgers that came with each branch of his travel agency, quietly correcting any mistakes Gippal might have made without making Gippal feel dumb.

He wiped sweat from his forehead and flicked on the cooling unit installed in his room. With a turn of his wrist, the air coming from the vent went from hot and stagnant to blissfully chill. "Look, I don't care if you think it's stupid," he told her, climbing onto his bed. He stared up at the ceiling, watching as the breeze the unit made caused each of his handmade snowflakes to flutter. "But I'm gonna see real snow one day. Until then, this is gonna have to do."

Rikku didn't say anything, but she watched Gippal stack his hands behind his head. Shifting on her feet, she went towards his bed and lay down next to him. "What do you think snow feels like?" she asked, mimicking his position.

"Dunno. The stuff Rin brought back melted really fast once he took the lid off the container it was in. It looked kinda soft though."

* * *

A few hours later, Gippal's mother came back from the errands she had been running. The dry heat at her back was a sharp contrast to the cold air inside her home. Rubbing her hands over her arms, she shook her head as she checked the nearby thermostat. _How many times have I told that boy not to mess with the switch?_ She picked up a pair of boots her son had left near the kitchen. _Honestly,_ she thought, _I did not carry him for nine months just so I could be his maid._ Going inside his room to drop off his boots and a book she had found on their kitchen table, she paused to take in the sight in front of her.

Gippal was sound asleep, his arms circled around Elder Cid's daughter. Rikku was curled into a tight ball, her hands clutching at Gippal's shirt. His cooling unit was on at full blast, which would explain why the rest of the house was so cold. Lina went over and turned it down to a more comfortable setting.

That's when she noticed the many fuzzy white wads of fabric Gippal had suspended from his ceiling beams. Her eyes widened when she bent to pick up the remnants he had left over.

She didn't know whether to laugh or ground her dear boy. Those had been the _good_ guest towels he had butchered.


	8. At the Car Wash

Title: At the Car Wash

Rating: G

Challenge: forget, regret, shield

Words: 895

Summary: "Take the job, Gippal."

Note: Happy early birthday, mariamcardoso!

* * *

"No way."

Gippal smirked. "Way." He stuck his hand in the bucket of water, stirring up the liquid soap until it frothed. "Your dad just finished posting the job assignments."

Rikku's mouth opened, but no sound came out. "But," she finally started, grabbing a sponge. "I'm _better_ at customizing things than you are."

Gippal sprayed the dusty hover with the water hose. "No offense kiddo, but some of your stuff tends to blow up after you've finished customizing it."

She huffed, scrubbing the metal harder than she needed to. "It's called experimenting with different variables."

"It's called driving your dad insane, that's what. If he _had_ any hair, he'd have pulled it all out by now."

"It's my job to keep him on his toes," she said, working around to Gippal's side. She spared him a critical once-over out of the corner of her eye. He'd gone through another growth spurt when he hit fifteen last month and his voice had finally evened out to a lower tone than it had been between the ages of eleven and fourteen. His features had sharpened and Rikku had heard more than one girl around Home giggle whenever he went by.

She didn't get it. This was _Gippal_, the boy Rikku had witnessed eat paste when he was five, who led her on so many troublemaking capers that the corner of her room was permanently known as Rikku's Time Out Spot, who had laughed so hard at one of her jokes once that milk came out of his nose, and who had broken his arm during a game of Pin the Tail on the Lupine that had dissolved into a great big bout of roughhousing between him and a few other boys his age.

But then again, he was also the boy who never laughed at her when she cowered from the thunderstorms that came to the island during the wet season. He was the one who taught her how to throw a punch and how to filch cookies from the kitchens without getting caught. He was her buddy, her partner-in-crime. Gippal was the one person in Home she knew she could annoy without him getting too mad at her.

Okay, sure he had gotten a lot taller and his voice was deeper. And yeah, his face had turned into all angles and his hair looked better now that he cut it so it wasn't in his face anymore. So what if his hands were bigger and more callused than hers or that he could pick her up by her elbows and sling her over his shoulder without getting winded. She still didn't get what the whole fuss was about.

_And now you're lying to yourself,_ she absently thought, spreading soap suds over the side of the hover. She was right there with every other girl, daydreaming about him when she should be busy doing something else, like proving to her father that she was more than capable of going on a salvage team for a sunken airship that may or may not be near some old temple ruins.

Gippal gave her one of his crooked grins. "Cheer up, Buttercup," he said, rinsing what she had just scrubbed. "I'm sure your dad just missed putting your name up there."

She snorted, wetting her sponge. "Oh yeah, because it's just like him to forget important stuff like that." She scrubbed another portion with less enthusiasm, not noticing when Gippal failed to rinse.

"I don't want the job."

She stopped what she was doing and stared at him. "What?"

He shrugged. "I get seasick, you know that. Can you imagine how bad I'd get out there?" He reached out and put a hand on her arm. "Besides, if I don't go, then that spot would be open for you."

Rikku instantly regretted moping. She knew that Gippal had been excited about getting the job and his claim of seasickness was a weak excuse. "Take the job, Gippal."

"What, you _want _me to barf my guts out?"

"You're a better mechanic than I am," she said.

"Yeah, but you really wanted this spot."

She smiled. She couldn't help but notice the complete lack of modesty at his answer. "Hey, the actual work isn't for another year. I've got time to bug Pops into letting me on." She watched his face as he thought her words over. _This is the guy who'd step aside from something he really wanted just to make me happy,_ she added to her mental description of Gippal.

"You're thinking about something," he accused.

"Huh?"

"Your nose is all crinkly." He dabbed at her face with his soap sponge, leaving a big cluster of suds sliding down her face.

"Hey!" She retaliated by smacking him in the arm with hers. "And here I was thinking about what a nice guy you were!"

He grinned and sprayed her with the hose. She shrieked and ran to the other side of the hover, using it as a shield as she lobbed another sponge his way.

In the end, both of them were sopping wet and trying to look contrite when one of the garage supervisors yelled at them for wasting water. Gippal gave Rikku a sideways glance and winked, which Rikku returned.

_Oh yeah,_ she thought, sidling closer to him. _I totally see what the big deal about him is._


	9. Stormy Monday

Title: Stormy Monday

Rating: G

Challenge: first sleepover

Summary: "You can sleep here if you want to."

Note: Happy birthday, andromeda3116!

* * *

A knock at the front door woke Gippal out of a sound sleep. He crawled out of bed, yawning as he ran a hand over his face.

"I can't sleep," Rikku offered as an explanation, looking forlorn as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other.

"It's three in the morning," he said, blearily glancing at the front entry clock with his good eye. Outside, thunder rumbled, making Rikku wince.

"I know."

He noticed that her clothes were soaking wet, her hair dripping into her eyes. It must have been raining hard if the quick run between breezeways that connected his home unit to hers got her that wet. "Come on in," he whispered, closing the door behind her. "Sudran's gonna kill me if the rugs get water stains on them." He glanced at the closed door of his mother's bedroom, hoping that they wouldn't wake her up.

"Dry off here, I'll get you something to wear." Rikku nodded and closed the bathroom door. Gippal wandered back to his bedroom and contemplated the contents of his dresser. At thirteen, he was tall and thin, but even then, he knew that all of his clothes would still be too big for her. He finally decided on a purple shirt and a pair of shorts he only wore around the house that he had outgrown the summer before. He left them on the floor by the bathroom and after telling Rikku where they were, he padded to the kitchen.

By some stroke of luck, the noise made getting the kettle out from underneath the counter didn't cause his mother's light to turn on, nor did the shrill whistle that told him when the water was hot. He dropped packets of tea into two mugs and filled them with hot water, pouring a heap of sugar and a big glob of honey into one.

Rikku padded barefoot into the kitchen, drawn by the smell of toast Gippal had decided to make. He slathered one slice with jam and handed it to her.

"Thank you," she told him, perching on the kitchen stool. Like he predicted, his clothes were too big for her. The shirt came down almost to her knees, the neckline so big that it slid over her, leaving one of her shoulders bare. His shorts hung loosely on her, the bottom hem hitting at mid-calf.

"Thunderstorm?" he asked, coating the second slice of toast with peanut butter before taking a bite.

"A really bad one." She reached for a mug, grimacing when she took a sip from the unsweetened one.

"Isn't anyone there at your place?" he asked, pushing the sugar-laced mug towards her.

"Just Brother. Pops and Keyakku got held up at that dig site up north." She'd tried to wake Brother, but he slept like the dead. And even if she had woken him, he would have teased her, saying that only babies were afraid of a little noise.

Never mind that _he_ had been the one to strike her with the thunder spell, making her terrified of lightning in the first place.

Gippal yawned, draining the last of his tea. "Do you think you can sleep now?" He got up from the kitchen island and put his mug in the sink.

"I think so." Stomach full and warm, Rikku could feel sleep start to creep up on her. She followed Gippal to his room, where he said he had a spare blanket and pillow for her to use. Another good thing about being his friend was the fact that he had a comfy living room couch. She'd never slept on it, but she always did like sitting on it whenever she came to visit.

Thunder rumbled and she bit her lip to keep from crying out. Gippal shifted on his feet uncertainly. "You can sleep here, if you want to," he said quietly.

She stared at him, her head tilted to the side before nodding. Gippal climbed in first and claimed the side of the bed tucked against the wall.

"Thanks," she told him again, pulling the sheet to her chin. Even though his bedroom didn't have a window, she knew that lighting flashed outside.

Gippal reached out and squeezed her hand in the dark. "No problem."

Rikku woke up at her usual time the next morning. She blinked, not registering where she was at first. Her bedroom didn't have a poster of the Psyches taped to a far wall, nor did it have a desk cluttered with bits and pieces of metal cogs and other components she couldn't make out in the gloom.

That's when she remembered what had happened the night before. There was a warm puff of breath at the back of her neck. Gippal had shown his true colors sometime during the night, proving that he was a bed hog. His arms and legs were sprawled out all over the place, shoving Rikku to the very edge of the bed.

She yawned. She hadn't gotten any sleep before leaving her house to head to his. Gently pushing his arm out of the way, she reclaimed her half of the mattress. Gippal responded by snorting, something that would have probably embarrassed him if he had been awake to hear it. She giggled, twisting the sheets back so she could cover up. Not only was Gippal a bed hog, he was also a blanket thief.

She closed her eyes and was about to drift off again when he muttered something, but she couldn't quite make it out. Then he twisted, smacking her in the face with his hand as he flipped to his side, his back now facing her. He took the sheets with him.

Rikku sighed. She could hear thunder rumble outside again, making her believe that they were in for another day of rain again. She turned on her hip, her back to Gippal. One of his feet kicked out and pushed against her backside. She might have been uncomfortable, but Rikku felt like she was in the safest place she could think of in Home.

Plus, Gippal's mom always made _fantastic_ pancakes for breakfast.


	10. Gone Fishin

Title: Gone Fishin'

Rating: G

Challenge: Ray, Fish, Blues

Note: Happy belated birthday to recordcover!

* * *

"This is boring."

"Give it a chance."

"I have. Still boring." Mayflies buzzed over the Moonflow, causing tiny ripples as they skimmed the surface of the water. The boat Gippal and Rikku were in gently rocked with the current as they lazily floated down the river.

Gippal stretched out further on his side of the boat, his bare feet brushing her legs. At his side was a fishing pole made out of bamboo. "You're not doing it right, that's why."

Rikku rolled her eyes. "Talk about not doing it right, do you even _have_ a hook on the end of the line?"

"Nope."

"Then how do you expect to catch fish?"

"Didn't come out here to catch fish."

She sighed. "Then what did you drag me out here for?" A ray of sunlight sparkled across the water, momentarily dazzling her eyes with how blue it was.

"Maybe I wanted some time alone with you. Between my work here and you going all over Spira for spheres, we don't really get a chance to be together much."

She stared at him before standing up. "Hey, you're gonna tip us over," he teased, even as he grinned up at her from under the wide brim of the hat that was currently shading his face.

"Live a little, won't you?" She sat back down on his side, sighing contentedly as she snuggled against him.

"Still boring?" he asked, wrapping an arm around her.

"It's looking up."


	11. A Bully For A Nurse

Title: Bully for a Nurse

Rating: G

Challenge: in sickness or in health

Note: Happy belated birthday, reallgoodchild! Here's to trying to do a story entirely in dialogue.

* * *

"I don't want any soup."

"But I made it special, just for you!"

"Rikku, you opened up a can and zapped it with a fire spell. That does not count as cooking."

"At least let me fluff your pillows."

"They don't need fluffing. I just need to sleep this cold off."

"Which is why you need fluffy pillows."

"What I _need_ is to be left alone for the next few hours."

"What you need is someone to take care of you."

"That's it."

"Hey! What are you doing? Lemme go!"

"No. The only way I'm gonna get a nap is if you take one with me."

"Fine."

"Fine."

"Your pillows are too flat."

"Rikku…"

"If I get sick, I'm blaming you."

"If you do, I'll make you soup."


	12. Double or Nothing

Title: Double or Nothing

Rating: PG

Challenge: Gippal's reaction to Rikku and Tidus' friendship

Note: Happy belated birthday, halflingrogue!

* * *

"Pay up."

Gippal gave an overly dramatic sigh as he reached for his wallet. "It was a stupid bet."

"You just say it was stupid because you lost." She shoved his feet off his desk and perched on top of the surface. "Five gil, please."

He put the piece in her waiting palm and tucked his wallet away. "I still say that having a pro Blitz player on your team tipped the scales somewhat."

Rikku shrugged. "I gotta admit; you've improved since the last time we played."

"The last time we played, you were eleven and jabbing everyone with your skinny little elbows." He leaned back in his chair. "Which, by the way, was highly illegal of you to do."

"Oh yeah, like you weren't holding onto my leg at the time."

"Fouls only count if someone catches them."

She leaned back on his desk, her palm squashing several folded plans. "I'm glad we caught you during a slow time."

"Yeah, me too." Several of the workers had joined in on the impromptu Blitz game, which had raised morale several notches.

"And I'm glad that you're not mad at me."

He frowned. "Why would I be?"

She fidgeted. "Well, I've been spending a lot of time with Tidus recently. I haven't had many chances to come visit you." She looked at him from under her bangs, as if she was trying to read his expression for any signs of irritation. Ever since Tidus had come back, they'd resumed their friendship, complete with horsing around and shoving the other. She always felt self-conscious when Gippal was around, as if she shouldn't do the things that she used to do with him with other guys.

"It's okay. I know you've been busy." He reached out and unknotted a snarl at the end of her scarf. "But speaking of Tidus, tell him it's 'tysh, cra'c lida' instead of 'tosh cra'c lida.'"

She laughed. "Who did he say that about?"

"Yuna. Which I've got to agree, she is pretty darn cute. Though if I were talking about _my_ girlfriend to another guy, I probably would have described her as something other than cute, but that's just me."

"You don't mind that I taught him Al Bhed?" Well, Rin had started him off, but once the cat was out of the bag about Rikku's heritage, she openly tutored him on the course of their pilgrimage.

"Should I be?" He leaned forward. "You mind that I taught Paine?"

"No." She looked away. Okay, so at first she _had_ been a little upset, but then she realized that Paine hadn't been interested in him. Maybe that was what was so awkward - if she looked at Tidus and squinted, she could kind of see Gippal. While she was Yuna's guardian, she had missed Gippal so much. Tidus managed to fill up the void he had left, becoming the person that she could joke around and talk to without feeling like she had to worry about what she said or if she sounded dumb. For a short time, she even developed a crush on him.

"So you think that I should be jealous of all the time that you spend with him then?" He smirked. "Or the fact that you're all buddy-buddy?"

She bit her lip. "Well, are you?"

He leaned back, his head hitting the back of his chair. "Nope."

"No?"

"Not at all. Wanna know why?" He watched as she nodded. "So you guys hang out all the time. Big deal. There's something that I can do that he can't."

She tilted her head. "Yeah? And what's that?"

He couldn't stop the grin that spread across his face. Before Rikku could react, he reached out and pulled her off the desk and onto his lap. Threading one hand into her hair and running the other over her knee, he swallowed her surprised squeak with his lips. Rikku relaxed against him, her hands tugging at his shirt to pull him closer to her. "That," he told her smugly, rubbing his nose against hers. She sighed as his fingers played with the hem of her skirt. His lips skimmed over her jaw. "I demand a rematch."

She pulled back a little. "Huh?"

"I want a rematch. Your team versus mine."

She laughed, her fingers sifting through his hair. "What, so you can lose some more money to me?" Her breath hitched when his teeth nipped at her earlobe.

"You said it yourself; I've improved since the last time we played. I might have just been holding back and _letting_ you win."

"Yeah, right."

"Wanna bet?"

Rikku arched her eyebrow. "You got five gil?"


	13. Leverage

Title: Leverage

Rating: PG

Challenge: soap, star, song

Note: Happy birthday 1frickengirl!

Note the second: Quasi-songfic. Thelma Houston's song "Don't Leave Me This Way" has been stuck in my head all day since hearing it on the way to the office this morning. Suspend disbelief and imagine if you will that disco somehow found its way into Spira.

* * *

The image recorded in the sphere was static-filled and had a blue tint cast over everything. The view was erratic at first, as if the recorder was trying to get their bearings. Quick flashes of a hotel room dipped in and out of view – one shot of the open window overlooking the sea told the viewer that the sphere had been recorded in Luca – and just as the viewer was about to be motion sick, the video stabilized. A trail of clothes started from one of the living area's couches and progressively grew larger towards a closed door.

The camera dipped again, one the recorder's hands quietly turning the knob. The interior was dark, but the outline of a large bed could be seen in the background.

" – try to mess with the volume," the recorder was heard muttering. "Listen to this." The sound of water running was louder as the recorder made their way towards another closed door, a sliver of yellow light peeking out from underneath.

_I can't survive, can't stay alive_… There was a muffled snort of laughter from close to where the microphone on the sphere recorder must have been. _Without your love, oh baby_! The camera dipped for a third time as the recorder reached out to open the door.

"Huh. Locked." The camera was put down on a side table and the view was filled with the recorder hunched over the lock for a few seconds. Lock taken out of the way, the recorder reached over and picked the camera back up.

The first thing that came into view was the wide array of hair care products jockeying for space on the sink countertop. Gels and mousses were mixed in with several cans of hairspray and an array of brushes and combs. The sound of running water was louder as the recorder inched slowly towards the tub, the occupant's silhouette only slightly visible behind the fog of steam that filled the room.

_Baby! My heart is full of love and desire for you_! the song continued. The camera shook slightly as the recorder tried to smother their laughter. _Now come on down and do what you got to do! _The person doing the singing suddenly hit a high note as they scrubbed their hair, pausing to strike a dance pose that left one hand high in the air above the shower curtain.

_You started this fire down in my soul!_

The recorder's hand suddenly shot out and pulled at the shower curtain. "Well, if Yuna doesn't want to be Spira's next super star, then you'd be a shoe in."

_Come on down and do what you've got to_ - The right side of the would-be singer's face was obscured by a trail of soap suds that was quickly sliding from their hair. All that the viewer could really see were surprised green eyes peering out from behind drenched blonde hair. "Turn that thing off!" they yelled, stepping out of the tub, one hand stretched out to make a grab for the camera. Then the picture fuzzed out and went blank.

The three people watching the sphere sat back. One had a completely satisfied smirk on their face, the other looked slightly embarrassed, and the third managed to look both somewhat nauseated and amused at the same time.

"Well," Paine said, leaning back. "Never pegged Gippal as the type to sing in the shower."

"And he let you _keep_ this?" Yuna asked, sipping at her drink.

Rikku nodded, the smirk spreading even more across her face. "I told him I wouldn't show anyone if he bought me the shoes I had been looking at the other day." She was perched on the ledge of a wall, her legs dangling below her and her new boots reflecting the sunlight as they lazily swung around.

"But you just did." Paine rolled her eyes. "I should deduct respect points for that."

"But you won't."

A ghost of a smile curled her lip. "No, I won't."

Rikku hopped off the wall then. "So, could you two keep it secret for a little bit longer? There's this really nice place I want Gippal to take me to tonight and I really like seeing him squirm. It's not often that I have something this big to hold over his head."

The three of them walked away then, never noticing that Gippal had snuck up behind a pillar and had heard the entire conversation. Well, two of them didn't notice. Paine turned her head and rolled her eyes at him, but didn't say anything. Gippal just smirked at her.

"So you think you've got the upper hand, huh?" he murmured, watching Rikku strut in her new footwear. "We'll see how long that lasts." He stuck his hands in his pockets then, turning around to head in the opposite direction, whistling as he went.

_Oh baby please, don't leave me this way…_


	14. Rubber Ducky

Title: Rubber Ducky

Challenge: Fine, Bang, Tepid

Words: 883

Rating: PG

Note: Happy Birthday, lijachan!

* * *

For once, every single bit of work was done for the day. Work orders were complete before schedule; plans for upcoming projects were on the drafting table awaiting final approval and the supply of machine parts were fully stocked in the workshops.

This was why Gippal was nose deep in blissfully hot water, his worries slowly melting away as his muscles unknotted themselves. He sighed, water quietly rippling as he stretched out and propped his feet on the opposite edge of the bathtub. The only thing that would take the relaxation level up from fine to fantastic would be a book, but he was far too comfortable to get up and find one.

And since everything was going great, he knew that it wouldn't last long. A loud bang had him sitting upright, water sloshing onto the floor.

"Don't worry about that!" he heard Rikku shout from somewhere. "It won't leave a mark! I hope."

He groaned. He hadn't heard any breaking glass or major rubble, so he seriously debated getting up and checking to see if his girlfriend hadn't blown his temple sky high. Hot water won out against potential unplanned skylights and he sank back in the tub.

Five minutes later, another shout had him sitting upright. "Of course Gippal doesn't know about this! Now help me clean that up." He slipped further down into the water until only the crown of his head was visible, his sigh making bubbles float around his hair. Several seconds of internal debate had him getting up and reaching for a towel.

* * *

Rikku bit the tip of her thumbnail and looked around the temple. What was once bright and airy – a feat she marveled at, seeing that the majority of the place was built into the mountain – was currently splattered and smoky. She coughed and waved her hands around to try and dissipate the smoke. Workers who had the day off were peering inside the doorways to see what she was up to. She frowned when she heard several of them place bets on what disaster she'd start next. Grabbing a broom, she tried to clean up her mess.

_Maybe I should have tried a mop instead,_ she thought. _Some of this stuff is really goopy._

The sound of someone clearing their throat behind her had her jumping, the broom handle clenched tightly in her hands.

"Hi," she said sheepishly, giving Gippal a 'please don't kill me in front of your employees' smile.

"What," Gippal started, looking at the destruction that was before him. "Were you trying to do, exactly?"

She blinked. A shirtless Gippal was distracting at best. A shirtless Gippal who just happened to have damp hair and water droplets still on his shoulders made thinking virtually impossible, especially when one took into consideration the fact that his pants were low slung and the waistband was wet as well. She flinched when he reached out and picked something out of her hair. She'd been so distracted that she hadn't realized he had gotten so close. "Is that chicken? It looks weird."

She huffed. "_Yes_, it is chicken. I was _trying_ to surprise you with dinner, but the stupid oven is broken."

Gippal glanced at the oven, which was open and still had smoke spilling out of it. The insides looked as if the food Rikku was attempting to cook had somehow blown up. He decided not to comment.

Instead, he hooked his thumbs into his belt loops and tilted his head. "I was trying to take a nice, relaxing bath before all this," he said. "But now I bet that if I go back right now, the water is gonna be cold."

She jammed her fists on her hips. "Well, I'm so sorry if I tried to be a good girlfriend for once and surprise you with something. Forgive me for your tepid bathwater."

"Tepid?" He looked at her incredulously.

She shrugged. "What? Okay, so hanging out with Yunie kind of rubbed off on me. Anyway," she turned her nose up in the air. "You can forget about me doing anything nice for you now, Buster."

"Well, that's too bad," he drawled, unhooking his thumbs and taking hold of her scarf. The ends were a little scorched, but for the most part, it had escaped unscathed.

"You bet. I'm serious here."

"Oh. Well, see I was thinking that since the water's already cold, that I was gonna drain it and then start up a new one. And since you were part of the," he tugged at the scarf as he searched for a word, bringing her closer to him, "blast radius, I was wondering if you wouldn't mind joining me. But since you won't be doing anything _nice_, I guess I'll just have to take a soak all by my lonesome."

Her eyebrows rose past her bangs. "Well, since you put it that way, I guess I can let this one slide."

He grinned and leaned down to kiss her forehead. "I thought you might." Then he glanced over at the countertop. "What's the lumpy stuff in the bowl supposed to be? Potatoes?"

He followed the sound of Rikku's laughter back to his bedroom, rubbing his now sore arm as he went. He really should have remembered about her nasty left hook.


	15. Stripes

Title: Stripes

Rating: PG

Challenge: tan lines

Note: Happy Birthday, gippikuislove!

* * *

"Get out of my light." His demand was sleepy, the foot he used to push at her side barely touching its mark.

"Aww, am I ruining someone's nap?"

"Trying to keep an even tan going here, Cid's Girl."

She rolled her eyes. They were in the middle of the desert, for crying out loud. Her eyes drifted down to the boy lying on the blanket they had brought. Barely sixteen, Gippal was all golden hair and bronzed skin. The lean muscles of his arms had been created by years of hard work, not by hefting weights for _fun_, like some of their people that had wandered beyond Bikanel and back had reported Yevonites doing. The only place that wasn't entirely kissed by the sun was a thin strip of pale skin that ran diagonally across his face, usually covered by the patch he wore. She couldn't help the ridiculously pleased giggle at the thought that out of all the other girls in Home who were prettier, more sophisticated and less accident-prone, he had chosen to be with her.

"I'm serious," he mumbled, his eyes closed. "Tanning time means no Rikku blocking out my light."

"Dad's going to kill us when he finds out we're missing." They were _supposed_ to be helping out with preparations for the big salvage attempt her father was organizing. Going to a remote island ruin in the hopes of finding a long lost ship under the waves without even knowing for sure if it was really there was right up Cid's alley.

Rikku didn't mind – she was going to be part of the team, and getting the opportunity to leave the island for the first time was something that she was looking forward to.

"Nah. He'll just yell a lot. Too late in the game to get someone trained to replace you if he does decide to kill us."

"Well, he _is_ practical that way." She flopped on her back next to him, feeling the sand shift underneath her. "I can't believe that you're leaving."

He sighed. They'd been over the topic several times. She understood why he wanted to join up with the new Crimson Squad, but he knew that she was anxious about the possibility of him getting hurt. "It's not like I'm going to be gone forever or anything." He turned on his elbow so he was looming over her, a serious look on his face. "I promised that I'd come back and you know I always keep my promises."

She stared up at him, at the careless way his hair fell over his forehead, the way that one eye was cloudy and sightless but its twin a vibrant green bright enough to make up the difference. Her hand went up and traced the outline of his lips. "I know you do," she told him, believing that if he said he would be back for her, he would.

He bent his head and kissed her. He knew that he'd be joining up for a greater cause and he knew that there was a chance that he'd either get injured or die trying to protect Spira from Sin. He sank against her 

mouth, wanting to soak up everything about his last day in the desert and lock it away in his memory. His fingers caught up in the clips and pins Rikku used to keep her hair up and he murmured an apology when she winced.

And as usual, it was Rikku who took a situation that was well on its way to getting too heavy for both of them to deal with and put a lighter spin on things. "You're in my light," she teased, her hand slipping down his shoulder.

He arched an eyebrow. "Forgive me, oh Princess of the Desert. I'll just be over here then, while you work on avoiding tan lines."

She rolled out from under him and laughed. "I'll let you in on a secret," she said, stretching her arms over her head. The skimpy excuse for a bathing suit she wore moved with her and Gippal couldn't help but stare.

"What's that?"

She leaned forward conspiratorially. "I don't _have_ any tan lines." Then she turned on her heel and ran to the waters of the Oasis, diving in headfirst.

Gippal sat up. If given the choice of lazing about in the sun or taking a swim with his girl, Rikku was going to win out every time.

Besides, there were plenty of opportunities to sunbathe later.


	16. Red Handed

Title: Red Handed

Rating: PG

Challenge: who ate my doughnut?

Notes: Happy birthday, annaiese!

* * *

"That's it. Who did it?"

Rikku looked up in time to see an irritated Gippal come down the stone path towards her. He stopped in front of her, his hands on his hips.

"Did what?" she asked innocently, crossing her legs as she sat on the top of the bridge linking the temple to the road.

"Ate my doughnut. Who did it?"

She rolled her eyes. "Relax, Gippster. It's _just_ a doughnut."

"Just a doughnut? _Just_ a doughnut? I'll have you know that I just spent the last four hours going over supply inventories and that doughnut was going to be my reward for slogging through some of the most boring reading material I've had to look at for some time. It was my patch of sunlight, my finish line, the light at the end of the tunnel. It was _way_ more than just a doughnut."

Rikku played with the end of her scarf. "You've seriously got to get a grip. If you want, I can drive down to Luca and get you a whole box of the things if it'll make you happy."

He eyed her suspiciously. Over the years, he knew that she only really fidgeted when she had a guilty conscience. Or when she knew she was about to get caught red-handed. "Just where were you this afternoon?" he asked her.

She looked away from him and towards the temple. "Here and there. Helping out with a couple of projects. My, doesn't it look like rain?"

"It always looks like rain here. What sort of projects?"

She abandoned her scarf and fiddled with the bows on her sleeve. "You know, the ones that you assigned."

"I've assigned a lot of them." He leaned forward, planting his palms on the bridge on either side of her. "Why does your breath smell like chocolate?"

She gave a tiny squeak. While she always felt that she was a touchy-feely person by nature, she was suddenly aware that Gippal was clearly in her little bubble of personal space. After she had come back to his doorstep asking for work several months ago, they had spent the majority of the time teasing and horsing around with the other, but hadn't ever taken things past the causal flirting stage. She tried to keep the crush she had on him out of their working relationship, but there were times that it couldn't be helped, like now. He hadn't shaved that morning, the dark blond stubble catching the early evening sunlight. She took a shaky breath and immediately wished that she hadn't. He smelled far too good for her well being, all leather and oil and something so undeniably male that it made her mouth water.

He tilted his head as if he was weighing some decision in his mind. "I wonder…" She blinked and had enough time to register Gippal distributing most of his weight on the palms of his hands in order to lean 

into her right before he kissed her. At first she didn't move, just took in the soft feel of his lips against hers and the way that he pulled back slightly before dipping his head again. She sighed against his mouth, her hands moving up his chest to rest at the tops of his shoulders, the fabric of his shirt bunching up in her fingers. The groan he gave her was enough to make her tremble and the way that his tongue swept into her mouth made her dizzy.

Gippal moved away only far enough that he could look her in the eye. "Caught," he said quietly, a smirk on his face.

She gaped at him, still trying to catch her breath. "Was that all that was about?" she sputtered, her cheeks reddening.

"No, I've been wanting to do that for some time. The doughnut just gave me an excuse. I knew you wouldn't be able to stay away from it for long."

She huffed, caught between indignation that he had tricked her and giddiness that he had wanted to kiss her as long as she had been wanting to kiss him. "You…"

"Meanie?" he supplied, leaning down again and kissing the corner of her mouth. "It also made me realize something."

"What?"

He nudged her nose with his. "Kissing you is _way_ better than some dumb doughnut."


	17. Sneaky Inspection

Title: Sneaky Inspection

Rating: PG

Challenge: Eyelash, expect, engineer

Summary: "If this thing falls down, don't come crying to me."

Note: Happy birthday, knightlineninja!

* * *

"Your bridge is going to collapse."

Gippal looked up from his seat on said bridge and found Rikku standing in front of him, her fists on her hips. "Feels solid to me," he told her, patting the spot next to him.

"I'm serious. When was the last time you got this heap of rocks inspected? It's seen way more traffic than it was probably originally built for, especially since pilgrims usually didn't come to the temple on hovers weighing a little over a ton."

He rubbed his chin with his hand and leaned over, looking at his bridge critically. "I guess it's been four or five months since I actually looked at it," he mused.

"And you call yourself an engineer."

He shrugged. "Hey, I just _design_ the things." Reaching out, he grabbed a hold of her arm and tugged her into his lap. His cheek against her shoulder muffled his words. "I don't actually go out and see if they're a-okay. I have inspectors on my payroll for a reason, you know." He placed a kiss on her skin, his teeth grazing over the thin straps of her bikini top.

Her fingers sifted through his hair. They were out in public and people were constantly passing by, but she didn't give a damn. "Well, if this thing falls down, don't come crying to me."

He gave her an overly dramatic sigh and let her go. "You're not going to give up until we go look, are you?"

She rocked back on her heels, her arms swinging behind her. "Nope."

"Then I guess we'd better get to it." He swung his feet over the edge and made a move to push himself off.

"What do you think you're doing?" she yelled, pulling at his suspenders as if that would keep him from going over the edge.

"Going to go check; isn't that what you wanted me to do?"

"Not like that! There's a path just a little ways off."

He rolled his eye and swiveled until he was facing her again. "Where's your sense of adventure, Cid's girl?"

"Back over there, where it won't end up looking like scrambled eggs if it followed you." She tugged at his arm, her boots skidding on the stone bridge. "Ooof. So are you coming with me or not?"

Gippal followed her down the stone pathway to where the drop wasn't quite as steep. Just as she had pointed out, there was a small trail that led to the bottom of the gully. Hands on his hips, he craned his neck up to inspect the underside of the bridge. "Huh. Looks stable to me."

"Yep. Just like I thought it would."

He turned to face her. "What do you mean?" Giving her a look of mock surprise, he accused, "Rikku, you didn't just drag me away from everyone just so you could have your wicked way with me, did you?"

She looked at him from under lowered eyelashes. "What do you think?"

"I think," he started, nudging her arms over his shoulders. "That I should have seen it coming."

"Is that so?" She tilted her head so his mouth could find the sensitive spot behind her ear better.

"Mmhm. In fact, now that we're here, I fully _expect_ you to have your wicked way with me. Anything less would be unacceptable."

And even though he had been expecting her to do something, he still had to take a step backwards when she hopped up into his arms, her legs wrapping around his waist. "Hey Rikku?"

She took enough time to stop kissing him to answer. "Yes?"

"I think I found your sense of adventure."

Far above, mechanics walking to and from the temple paused and looked around at the sudden burst of laughter that echoed from the rocks. Newer members of the Faction actually jumped, but then someone that had been around longer shook their head and went, "Trust me, you'll get used to it."


	18. One for You, Two for Me

Title: One For You, Two For Me

Rating: G

Challenge: jelly beans

Note: Happy birthday, wildgreeneyes!

* * *

"Stop hogging all the yellow ones."

"But I _like_ the yellow ones." Rikku stuck her tongue out and put a protective arm around her share of the spoils, both of them lying across her bed.

"But we were supposed to divvy them up equally. My one yellow to your ten is _not_ equal."

"Awww, is somebody upset?" Just to irritate him, Rikku reached over and grabbed his single canary colored jelly bean, popping it into her mouth.

"Nope. Just wondering when you were gonna do that." Leaning over on his elbows, he pressed his mouth to hers, savoring the taste of lemon and Rikku.

Rikku could feel her cheeks turning pink, even as she looked at Gippal's neatly arranged pile of candy. "Hey," she said, kicking her feet in the air.

"What?"

She grinned up at him. "Stop hogging all the purple ones."


	19. Pillow Talk

Title: Pillow Talk

Rating: PG-13

Challenge: after sex cuddles

Note: happy anniversary, quitethecouple!

* * *

"Your feet are _freezing._"

Gippal's answer was a sleepy yawn. "They wouldn't be if you didn't steal all the blankets."

"I never steal." Her hands slid over his shoulders, savoring the feel of sweat-slicked muscles under her fingertips. "I just take my fair share." She didn't add that said blankets were now in a tumbled heap on the floor where the two of them had kicked them off with their movements earlier.

He raised his head from the comfortable spot he found on her side, an incredulous look on his face. "I'm not _even_ gonna touch that one." His words were slurred together and he pressed a kiss to her hip.

Rikku smirked, one of her hands lazily running through his hair. "Good, because then I wouldn't have to bring up the way _you_ take all the pillows."

His words were muffled. "My bed, my pillows." His arms wrapped tighter around her waist. "You can hog all the pillows you want when we spend the night in your room."

"How generous." Her giggle had his head bouncing atop her belly. Rikku propped herself up on her elbows as Gippal slid up her body until he was nose to nose with her.

"I'm a generous kind of guy." He dipped his head down and kissed her, loving the way that her hands trailed down his biceps and how she wrapped her legs around him, her ankles locking together at the small of his back. There wasn't anything hurried about their kiss, nothing desperate or raw, just this bone deep feeling of satisfaction that came with being with the one woman he knew he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.

Granted, they'd be spending the majority of it fussing and teasing the other, but then that would only give them plenty of opportunities to make up afterwards.

Rolling to his side, he sighed into her hair as she curled up against him, one leg draped over his, her foot sliding down along his calf. Her breath brushed against his collarbone and he captured one of her hands in his, holding it close to his chest.

"We have to get up in an hour," she groused, splaying out her fingers so that they were pressed against his palm. She carefully scrutinized the differences between their hand sizes in the pre-morning light. His were far larger than hers, but instead of making her feel inferior, it made her feel safe, protected.

He wound his fingers around hers, bringing them up to his lips. "Call in sick. I'm sure the boss will understand."

"Kind of hard to do, seeing that the boss just had a demonstration of how very _well_ I actually am."

Gippal shrugged. "Try it anyway; I'll just have to spend the rest of the day kissing you to make you feel better." He let go of her hand and smoothed his palm down her side, her unbound hair sliding over his skin.

"What about you? Just going to slack off work to spend the entire day in bed with me?"

"Sounds like a pretty good idea. Glad you came up with it." He yawned again, not bothering to cover his mouth. He shut his eyes, feeling her settle into a comfortable position against him.

"Gippal?"

"Hm?"

"Your feet are still cold."


	20. Train of Thought

Title: Train of Thought  
Challenge: It's not all Gippal, Gippal, Gippal you know.  
Rating: PG  
Summary: The inner musings of a certain Gullwing do not always center on Gippal.

* * *

I don't know why people think I'm so hung up on Gippal. I mean, it's not all Gippal, Gippal, Gippal all the time on the Rikku Channel, you know. I think of other things.

For instance, I think it's pretty neat that there's a machina – strike that, _machine_ – based industry starting out of an old Yevonite temple. The fact that Gippal started it is kind of scary, seeing that when he was younger, the guy couldn't hold onto two pieces of gil for longer than a second before losing it. Now he's paying hundreds of workers, sometimes including yours truly, to dig up stuff in the desert.

See, thinking about a business. Not Gippal. Nope.

And I think about technical stuff too. I'm pretty handy when it comes to wiring things together, and nothing's blown up yet. Okay, so nothing's blown up _because_ I put it together, let's put it that way. Things going kaboom because of people throwing blitz balls and jabbing at them with swords is something _completely_ different. I won't name names, Wakka and Tidus. When Shinra left to go do his own thing, _someone_ had to keep up with the sphere network. And so what if I made sure that upgrades to the Djose connection were done first? Again, there's a business there that we Gullwings might benefit from helping every now and then. I've got the team's best interests at heart, ya know.

Of course there's food. Buddy always teases that I can eat my weight in food plus some, but I think he's just jealous that I won the hot dog eating contest last time we went to Bikanel. It was pretty tough, some dude named Zell or something like that almost took the title away from me. Don't know where the guy came from, but he kind of vanished afterwards. Huh. Anyway, I can make a mean pot roast whenever Barkeep lets me hop over the counter and help him out in the kitchen. Guy's really protective of his cookware, let me tell you. Sheesh, you accidentally set fire to _one_ oven mitt and you're branded for life. I remember, there was this one time that I stayed at the temple – freak sandstorm closed out all the roads to the desert – and Gippal said that my cooking didn't taste too bad. Okay, as compliments go, it wasn't the best, but _still_. He did clean his plate and lick his lips afterwards, which was kind of distracting…

Um, food. Thinking about food, not Gippal. Moving on now.

Okay, so there's clothes. And boy do I have a lot of 'em. Now that Yunie and Paine are gone, I've got the entire upper deck instead of just one bunk. Brother's been complaining that I'm cluttering it up with all the "girly junk" that I've been buying with my share of the profits, but I can't help it if I like to look nice, unlike him, who thinks that wearing the same pair of baggy pants is a "look" that he's worked hard to cultivate. Yeah, it's a statement all right; it says I'm too lazy to do my laundry so I make my little sister wash my dirty socks. My dirty, _smelly_ socks that are so gross that they can practically _walk_ themselves to the laundry room. I really wish he'd go shopping for something new. Heck, he can _give_ me the money and I'll go shopping for him. His "look" needs updating anyway and who knows what he would come up with if left without supervision. And it wouldn't help his mood any if he got hooked up with some poor, unsuspecting girl who somehow fell in love with him before she realized what a bonehead he was. Maybe I can help him out with that.

Hmm, purple would be a good color on him. Maybe a dark purple, to bring out the yellow of his hair, well, what hair he hasn't decided to shave off. I don't know why he did that, he looks better with a full head of hair instead. Maybe his new hypothetical girlfriend could get him to grow it back. Light purple wouldn't do his eyes justice, that color's meant for brighter green eyes, kind of the green you'd see in the Calm Lands or the way the water looks in certain areas of Besaid from above on board the Celsius. And form fitting pants, for crying out loud. If he has to, then he can keep his suspenders off his shoulders, but he needs a shirt that covers up some of the self-done tattoos. They're not too bad, but kind of flashy. If he fusses, then he can keep the shirt somewhat unbuttoned. Huh, I wonder what _he_ would look like with his shirt unbuttoned. Hell with that, I wonder what he'd look like with it _off_. I mean, Gippal does wear pretty tight shirts, so there's not much of a stretch to imagine him without it. I bet he has those little dips in his abs and lines of muscles at his hips. Mmm, muscles.

Ahem. Okay, so you got me. I'll admit it, I have a huge crush on the guy. All I said was that I didn't think of Gippal _all_ the time, just _sometimes_. Didn't say I ignored him completely. Now if we're done here, I'm really busy thinking up ways to get him to start thinking about Rikku, Rikku, Rikku all the time.


	21. Better Late Than Never

Title: Better Late Than Never  
Rating: G  
Challenge: Happy Birthday  
Note: Happy Birthday, shelliebelle!

* * *

"Hand me the converter, will you?" The voice underneath the heap of machina was muffled, but definitely female. As were the legs that stuck out, Gippal noted. To confirm his observations, a slender hand searched for said piece of equipment, bright yellow fingernail polish a sharp contrast to the dark brown grease stains over the knuckles and wrist. Gippal silently handed her the converter, along with the tool he knew she was going to need to attach it.

"Thanks." There were a few grunts, then she gave a small noise of triumph when she got it fixed to her liking. Her heels dug into the ground and she pushed herself out from under the metal.

"Hey Dollface." Gippal said casually as Rikku emerged. He leaned against the work bench, his hands in his pockets.

"What are you doing here?" she asked from her seat on the floor.

"What? I can't come back to the desert whenever I want? And here I was gonna be nice to you." He made a move to turn as if he was going to leave, but Rikku held out a hand.

"You know that's not what I meant. You usually call before you leave Djose." Inwardly, she cringed and knew what a state she looked. Hours working in the garage had left her sweaty and grease-stained. Even if she was out of the sun, the heat was almost as bad as if she had been in the open.

He shrugged. "Guess I forgot." He circled the mass of spare parts and frowned. "Whatcha building?"

"Solar generator." She made a face. "Or at least I'm trying to make one. This stupid thing won't cooperate."

"Wanna take a break? Maybe some time away will let you come up with new ideas." He didn't wait for her answer, he just took her hand and led her outside. Rikku shaded her eyes with her free hand and dug her heels in.

"I'm filthy," she protested, seeing that he was leading her toward a two-seater hover.

"But still cute. Does it look like I care?" He reached out and wiped at the streak of oil on her cheek with the pad of his thumb. "Come on, I've got a surprise for you." Seeing as he wasn't going to take no for an answer, she climbed up on the hover behind him and put her arms around his waist. One of his hands squeezed hers where it rested over his heart before he started the hover up and drove off.

"So where's my surprise?" Rikku asked playfully when they stopped near the coastline. There wasn't anything or anyone for miles, the sound of the waves hitting the sand the only thing that broke the silence.

"Right here." He pulled a small box out of his pocket and presented it to her. "Happy birthday, Rikku."

She carefully opened the box, gasping in delight at the bright shine of metal inside. "I thought you might like them," Gippal continued casually, watching as she took one of the hair pins out and inspected it in the sunlight. They had taken a long time to create, but the effort had been worth it.

"I love them," she said, putting the box aside and tugging off her bandanna. The pink and blue beads followed, each hitting the sand with a muted plop.

Gippal reached out and started undoing one of her braids. "I know your birthday was actually last week, but I just wanted to let you know that I hadn't forgotten." He grinned as the newly released strands of hair wound around his fingers. Gently, he pulled on her hair, bringing her face closer to him.

"I know you've been busy," she whispered, the task of unbraiding the rest of her hair abandoned. Her hands cupped the sides of his face, fingers stroking his sideburns. She pressed her lips to his, lingering long enough for him to nibble her top lip, before feathering kisses across his chin and jaw. Dancing away from him, she pulled her hair up and twisted it behind her head. Using one hand to keep it in place, she picked up her new pins and fastened them.

"Well? How do you like it?"

Gippal took a few steps towards her. He reached out and cupped the bare skin of her waist with one hand. "Looks nice. I like this even better." With his other hand, he deftly pulled out the pins, enjoying the way her hair fell down and settled against her back. He swallowed her laugh with his mouth, pulling them both down to the sand.

"Gippal?" Rikku gasped his name out between kisses.

"Yeah?"

"Best birthday present ever."


	22. Game Over

Title: Game Over  
Challenge: The end of the road  
Rating: G  
Note: Happy birthday, prettygothgirl!

* * *

The sun reflected brightly off the water at Luca. Rikku stood and watched the birds swoop down under the surface and come back up with fish in their beaks. The breeze made her scarf flutter around her legs, the tassels brushing her calves. She stood there worrying her bottom lip with her teeth, wondering just why she had agreed to stay behind to talk to the one person she really didn't want to deal with right now.

"I'm glad you could make it," Gippal said behind her. Somehow, he had managed to sneak up without her noticing and the sound of his voice right at her ear made her back tense. It also made her heart do funny little flip flops at his nearness, but she put a hand to her chest to try and contain the frantic beating before he noticed. It wasn't fair that he always knew what buttons to push to make her react while she had yet to learn what made him tick.

"What did you want? I can't stay long." She didn't turn around just yet, her eyes glued to the birds floating on the water. She had wanted to slip away unnoticed, to avoid the inevitable goodbye. Now that Spira was safe from its latest threat, she and Gippal didn't have any reason to work together and she was out of excuses for visiting Djose. Ex-Guardians turned famous sphere hunters didn't exactly _need_ to go out to the desert to dig for machina parts, especially when their captains weren't too fond of the guy that ran the Machine Faction. She kept her tone light, but was instantly upset at the way her throat suddenly felt too tight and her words came out thicker than she had intended them to.

Gippal moved so that he was leaning against the pillar she was standing by. She caught a glimpse of purple and yellow out of the corner of her eye, but still didn't move. If she didn't look directly at him, then maybe she could say goodbye without completely losing it. "Yeah, Yuna's gonna give a speech, isn't she?"

She shook her head. "She's done giving speeches. She just wants to go home." Her cousin just wanted to get on with her life, to forget about the boy she had spent two years of her life searching for. _And so do I,_ she thought, reaching up and fiddling with a braid. _Except the boy I was looking for is standing right here._ She thought back to the talk she, Paine and Yuna had the last time they had visited Luca. _I know what it's like to love someone so much that they're the only thing you can think of._ Yuna hadn't known who she had been talking about, but the way that Paine's head had tilted had made Rikku wonder just what Gippal might have said to her when they had traveled together. Even afterwards, Paine had given Rikku the look she usually reserved when she was trying to figure out a particularly complex puzzle where she had almost all the parts together but was missing a key piece.

"So what are you going to do?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. Paine's talking about leaving, and Shinra's pretty much made it clear that he had fun, but he wants to do something different. It looks like it's just me, Buddy and Brother from here on out." Just saying it made her throat tighten even more. After Luca, there would be three more goodbyes to say.

Rikku jerked when she felt something soft brush her cheek. Whipping her head around, she saw it was only Gippal's thumb wiping away a tear that had slipped down her face without her knowing it. Her breath caught when she realized that he was looking down at her as if he was about to lose something important. "Sometimes," he quietly started, his knuckles grazing her jaw, "I think you're too tough for your own good, Cid's Girl."

"Well, what do you want me to do?" she asked, her voice cracking. "Go into hysterics about how much I'm going to miss everyone? Rant and rave about how things are never going to be the same, about how it feels like I'm fifteen and I'm being left behind all over again?" She clamped her mouth shut and clenched her hands into fists at her sides. She hadn't meant to blurt the last bit out, but it came out all the same. "I have to go; Yunie and Paine are waiting for me." She turned on her heel and took a few steps, but Gippal reached out and grabbed her hand.

"Do you really think that's what happened, Rikku?" He pulled on her hand until she was facing him.

"There wasn't any other reason for you to leave Bikanel," she whispered, her eyes focusing on the metal buckles at his chest. She looked up sharply at his sarcastic snort of laughter.

"No other reason, she says. Sure, there's no other reason for me to start up any of this. Forget that I left to prove to my girl's dad that I could defend her. And forget that now I'm in a position that I can provide for her."

Rikku blinked. "Did you really think I needed you to prove something like that to me?"

Gippal's fingers tightened slightly on her wrist. "I always figured that you did."

Rikku didn't give him any warning before she launched herself into his arms. "Dummy," she said, her words muffled by his shirt. "All I ever needed was you." Her arms went around his waist, her fingers clutching the material at his back. She felt his arms go around her and shivered at the feel of his hands splayed over the bare skin at her shoulders and back and the way he buried his face against her hair. She let out a laugh when he lifted her off her feet and spun her around.

"And you know, I can take care of mys –" she started, but never finished because he was kissing her and it felt as if two years had never passed. She sifted her fingers through his hair and pulled him closer, the smooth stone pillar they were standing by now pressed against her back. He slanted his lips across hers and the groan that vibrated against her mouth made her tingle all the way down to her toes.

"Promise me you won't be a stranger around Djose?" he asked, his forehead gently bumping against hers.

"Only if you call and let me know where you've gone off to between visits." If she didn't know anything else about him, she knew about his wandering feet. "It wouldn't do if I showed up and you weren't around."

He grinned and kissed the tip of her nose. "It's a deal."

Later when Rikku joined up with Paine and Yuna to leave, her cousin gave her a curious look as if she was wondering just why Rikku's cheeks were a bright pink and why her bandanna was crooked. Paine only rolled her eyes and walked off to board the Celsius.

Rikku looked back to where Nooj, Baralai and Gippal were standing. She gave a brief wave and smiled at the lopsided grin Gippal shot her before turning and heading back towards the stadium.

The unspoken _see you later_ was ten times better than _goodbye_.


	23. Fair and Square

Title: Fair and Square  
Rating: G  
Challenge: first crush  
Note: Happy Birthday, lady_nicole!

* * *

"I always wondered," Rikku started, sitting next to him.

Gippal raised an eyebrow. It was never a good sign when his girlfriend started a sentence that way. "What?"

"What it was that you did to make Brother not like you as much as he does."

Gippal shrugged. "Dunno. I can't remember doing anything too bad to him." As a boy, Gippal had played numerous pranks on the other children running around Home. Brother had just happened to be an easy target, especially since his temper had been on a short leash and he had looked like an angry chocobo when he threw a tantrum.

"He says you stole his first crush away from him." Rikku leaned against Gippal's left shoulder and playfully poked at his side. "That wouldn't have happened to be Lydia, would it?"

Gippal reached over and grabbed her hand when Rikku's poking became just a tad bit too hard to be considered playful. "Did he say that?"

"Not about Lydia, but he did tell Yunie that you stole his first crush. Then he went on about how you always got all the girls…"

He brought her hand up to his lips. "Babe, the only girl I've ever wanted to get was you. Lydia was five years older than I was and I didn't have a thing to do about how she rejected Brother all on her own." He grinned. "Jealous for a bit, weren't we?"

She blushed. "No…" She bit her lip and looked away, blushing even harder when Gippal laughed. She huffed a bit when he wrapped his arms around her and hauled her onto his lap, but it didn't last long, especially since he was rubbing his thumbs over the small of her back in distracting little circles.

"I might have teased your brother over the years when we were growing up, but I promise you, I've never stolen anything…" he drifted off and his thumbs stilled.

"What?"

"Oh, I can't believe he thinks I _stole_ that! I won it fair and square!" Gippal shook his head. "I was thirteen and Brother was going on and on about this new sand bike he had just built and how fast it could go. Remember, I had been in that big bike phase back then?"

She nodded. "Yeah, I couldn't get in a word edgewise unless it had something to do with them. You were worse than when you went into that blitz phase a few years before that."

He ignored her and went on. "Anyway, he was so proud of the bike that he had built that he was challenging everyone around to races. I got fed up with him bragging about how many he had won, so I told him that if I won our race, he had to give me his bike."

Rikku's eyes widened. "So _that's_ why he was so upset for weeks. Huh, I never could figure it out."

"Well, he was probably even madder when he realized that I customized his old bike even further and made it better."

"I can't believe he's held a grudge this long."

Gippal resumed his thumb circling and nudged Rikku's nose with his own. "So am I finally cleared from the whole stealing of girlfriends charge?"

"Yep. You're officially cleared." She leaned over and gave his lips a brief peck. "Though it might be a good thing if you made it up to me for all the years I thought you were this ladies' man, just to be on the safe side."

He smiled against her mouth. "I take it Brother isn't the only one in the family to carry a grudge?"

She draped her arms around his shoulders. "Just be grateful I tend to forgive easier." She gasped when his hand slid over her calf, his fingers brushing the sensitive underside of her knee.

"Will you two find someplace more private to do that?"

Gippal lazily looked up from Rikku's mouth. Brother was looking down at them, his fists propped on his hips and his mouth turned down in a disapproving frown. Gippal blinked. Well, what do you know; some habits did die hard; Brother _still_ looked like an angry chocobo when he threw a tantrum.


	24. Yo Ho Ho

Title: Yo Ho Ho  
Rating: G  
Challenge: Pirates  
Note: Happy Birthday, yuna1881!

* * *

This is stupid."

"You think that's dumb, try wearing this." Rikku gasped as she tried to adjust her corset, her breath coming in shallow pants. "Whenever I find whoever invented these things, I'm going to strangle them."

Gippal came up behind her and loosened the ties at her back. "I don't know; I kinda like it." From the mirror, Rikku could see the path his eye took down to the mountain of cleavage she hadn't previously known she could generate.

"You would." Not that she had any cause to complain either; the shirt Gippal was wearing was unbuttoned almost to his navel and showed off a tantalizing view of his chest and lightly muscled abs. The form fitting black pants were a bonus too, especially tucked into the boots he was wearing.

"So all we have to do is make an appearance at this costume party thing and then make a break for it, right?"

Rikku held out the invitation. Tobli was hosting some sort of gala grand opening for another attraction on the Calm Lands and he had personally invited Rikku. _Rikku and one guest,_ the invitation had actually read, which was probably why Gippal thought the whole thing was stupid. _He_ hadn't been invited. "Well, it would be kind of rude if we just showed up to say that we were there without staying for a little longer. Besides, there's going to be food."

Gippal moved over to the dresser. Leaning closer to the mirror, he took the usual pink stud in his earlobe and replaced it with a gold hook. "Well, how do I look?" He stood back and flung his arms out wide.

Rikku giggled and straightened the bright red bandanna he had tied around his head. "Perfect. Just like I thought you would."

He touched his eye patch and grinned. "At least I didn't have to buy this when I got the costume." He gave her outfit another once over before leering. Rikku barely had any breath to gasp when he grabbed her and slung her over his shoulders. "Arr, I'm a pirate captain stealing some princess booty."

Rikku rolled her eyes from her perch on his shoulder. She waved at some of the Djose workers who had paused to see just what the commotion was coming down the main hallway. "Lame, Gippal. Very lame."

Once they were outside and near the waiting Celsius, he set her down. "What? You'd rather be my pirate wench then?"

Rikku reached up and plucked Gippal's hat off his head. Setting it at a jaunty angle on her own, she stood up on her tiptoes and brushed a kiss over his stubbled chin. "Now that," she said, "I like."


	25. Travel Light

Title: Travel Light  
Rating: PG for slight innuendo  
Challenge: Suitcases  
Note: Happy birthday, tofadeawayagain!

* * *

The muted thud that came down the stairs made Gippal's eyebrow go up. "We're going on a short vacation," he said, emphasizing the word _short_.

"I know."

"We're only going to be in Luca for a week."

More thuds came down the stairs. "I know."

He grinned mischievously at her. "And I was hoping to spend the majority of that week locked up in our hotel room."

She came up next to him and pressed a light kiss to his lips. "I _know_. I'm planning on doing that too."

He gestured towards the pile at their feet. "Then what's up with all the suitcases? You don't need _that_ many clothes."

Rikku laughed and shook her head. "They're _empty_, silly. How _else_ am I going to bring back all the shoes I'm planning on getting you to buy for me?"

Gippal sighed and bent to pick up one of the cases. Really, sometimes he didn't understand girls.


	26. Trick Question

Title: Trick Question  
Rating: PG  
Challenge: sun, sweat, grit  
Note: Happy birthday, siilentfall!

* * *

The hot sun beat down on Gippal as he lay face up on the beach towel, the sand underneath him gritty and familiar. It had been forever since he had come back to Bikanel, back home. Granted, everything from his childhood and early teenage years was now under tons of sand and reduced to scrap metal, but still. He had caught himself spending way too many hours hunched over his desk or elbow-deep in machine parts at the wee hours of the morning and had decided that he needed to take a well deserved vacation. Besides, he knew that things would be taken care of while he was gone. He had a good group of employees that didn't need constant hand holding on projects.

He stretched his arms out and folded them behind his head. He couldn't see it, but he felt the shadow loom over his face. "Out of the way, Cid's girl," he muttered, still not opening his eyes. "Sunbathing requires sun, not Rikku-shade."

"How did you know it was me?" she asked, sitting down beside him.

"The perfume you have on. I could smell you from miles away." He was teasing and his tone said as much, but he couldn't help the deep inhalation that made his nostrils flare. She smelled _fantastic_, like someone had taken all of his favorite things and wrapped them up in flowers and silk. She was warm and soft and very, very feminine.

Which is why, even though he knew her and how she would react, the punch she gave his right arm still surprised him.

"You say the nicest things," she cooed sarcastically, batting her eyes at him.

"I try." He sat up and braced his palms behind him. "So, what's up?"

She shrugged. "Nothing. Just thought you might be lonely." She scooted closer to him, claiming a portion of his towel for herself. The move gave Gippal a very nice view down the top of her bikini, but he wasn't about to complain. Shifting so that one of his palms was planted beside her hip, his arm effectively trapping her in place, he raised an eyebrow.

"Oh?" His nose nudged her cheek, his breath stirring her hair. "So you decided to fix things?"

"Uh huh." She tilted her head to the side and sighed when she felt his lips follow the curve of her neck. "I mean, keeping your boyfriend company is part of the Girlfriend Handbook, right?"

"Wouldn't know, you never let me read it." His teeth grazed her collarbone and he smiled against her skin when she gasped. "You could at least let me skim the parts that would help keep me off the couch. I know there's a chapter titled _Is She Prettier Than Me and Other Trick Questions_ somewhere in there."

She laughed. "Now what kind of fun would that be if I let you in on all the girly secrets?" She used her free hand to sift her fingers through his hair. Spending a good part of the afternoon sunning had left it somewhat damp with sweat. "And when have I ever made you sleep on the couch?"

"Just trying to prevent something before it happens. My couch is really lumpy; I'd hate to have to spend the night on it." He lifted his head and stared down at her. She was looking up at him with a playfully disbelieving look on her face, her lips turned up in a wry grin.

"You worry about dumb stuff, Gippal." She wrapped both of her arms around his shoulders. "Just shut up and kiss me already."

Because he really didn't need a handbook to tell him what to do when there was a beautiful girl in his arms, he did just that. If he had thought that she smelled fantastic before, it had nothing on the way that she tasted. He was about to use his teeth to undo one of the straps of her top when he heard a loud noise above them. He was fully prepared to ignore it completely when something heavy dropped inches away from his head. The bright blue and white he caught from the corner of his eye told him it was a blitzball.

"So, are you gonna come Blitz with us like we sent Rikku to ask you or what?" Buddy asked, shaking his head at the two of them.

"I got distracted," Rikku answered, acting as if she hadn't just gotten caught making out with her boyfriend by one of her teammates who might possibly inform her brother of her whereabouts. She was banking on the little known fact that since Buddy was a real softie when it came to romance that he wouldn't snitch on her.

Gippal untangled himself from Rikku long enough to pick up the blitzball and toss it back to Buddy. "I'm guessing that was an _or what_ type of answer," Buddy said, walking back to the shoreline.

Once they were alone again, Rikku ran her hands over Gippal's arms. "Good answer."

Gippal grinned as he kissed her. It was a _very_ good answer, indeed.


	27. First Aid

Title: First Aid  
Rating: PG  
Challenge: big, opposite, eyebrow  
Note: Happy Birthday, vegetaspr1ncess!

* * *

Gippal's gaze jerked up from his desk at the sound of his office door slamming closed. "Yes?" he asked smoothly, trying to act as if he hadn't just been startled.

"Your highroad," Rikku started as she stood on the opposite side of his desk, her hands on her hips, "is full of fiends."

"Well, yeah." As if he hadn't been aware of the problem before. Workers had started requesting spots on the Bikanel operation more often lately. It wasn't as if the desert was fiend-free, but the road leading up to the temple and beyond had been plagued with more monsters than usual these days. Production had dropped fifteen percent in the past month alone, and if he didn't do anything about his problem soon, then he was going to have to think of how he could move his base of operations.

The bad thing was, Cid would probably charge him an arm and a leg for monthly rent if he went anywhere in the leader's territory. The guy was ruthless when it came to money.

"And you're just going to sit there all calm-like and take it?" Rikku slumped down in one of his chairs. He gave her an appreciative glance – her position showed off tons of tanned leg and deepened her cleavage. She might be one of his closest female friends – hell, who was he kidding. She was his _only_ female friend – but he had to admit, he wasn't totally immune to her charms. And if he stopped lying to himself for a second, he'd admit that what he felt for her went way past the boundaries of friendship and that it was game over for him when it came to not noticing anything about Rikku, especially when it came to the smooth expanse of skin between where her boots stopped and the short excuse of a skirt she wore started.

"No, I'm going to sit here all calm-like while I look through this list of bounty hunters who are willing to take care of my problem for me." Technically, he _could_ have just gone through Nooj or Baralai for help via the Youth League and New Yevon, especially since both groups had merged into one, but he knew that both of his friends would expect a favor out of it. Baralai might not say it out loud, but it would be heavily implied and Nooj would sit on it until an End of the World scenario came up to collect. "Come with me to the Farplane to find Vegnagun and I'll forget that night you made a drunken ass of yourself in front of Paine" quickly sprang to mind.

Besides, he wanted to do this on his own, even if on his own actually meant hiring people to do the dirty work for him.

Rikku stood up and circled his desk. "What bounty hunters?" Without asking, she plucked the list from his desk. "You don't want those people; they overcharge any time someone comes out with so much of a scratch on them." Without looking, she reached down and picked up a pencil, striking out a name.

"Oh, please. You picked _these_ guys? Gippal, sometimes I have to wonder if you really know anything at all about contracts. They're going to charge you per _fiend_, not per hour, plus weapons expense and food."

"I wasn't gonna pick them," he muttered, leaning back in his chair, his feet stretched out in front of him. "Give me some credit."

She perched one of her hips against his desk and crumpled up the paper. "Really, they're all bad choices."

"And what am I supposed to do now, kiddo?"

She tapped the end of the pencil on her bottom lip and Gippal was suddenly aware that for the first time, he was jealous of an eraser. "Hire me."

His eyebrows shot up past his hairline. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me. I'm not going to repeat myself."

Since when did she get all cocky sounding? And since when did she kill fiends? Okay, so she _had_ fought fiends when she was a Guardian and then later on as a Gullwing, but he distinctly remembered a time when taking care of a single spider had made her scream in fright. "So I'm taking it that those knives aren't there just to look pretty."

As if to answer him, the red blades strapped to her sides winked as lamplight reflected off of them. "Nope. Are you going to hire me or not?"

"I can't let you fight all of them alone, there's too many of them."

She rolled her eyes. "Which is why _you're_ going to come out and help me."

"Babe," he couldn't help but inwardly grin at the way she tried not to bite her lip at the nickname, "if I was going to go out there and do this myself, then I wouldn't have wasted all this time trying to find someone to do the job for me."

She cocked her hip and crossed her arms. The move pushed her breasts up even higher and it took a great deal of self-control for him not to stare. Or to not stare for very long. "Oh, is someone getting _lazy_ in their old age?"

"I'm twenty-six. I'm not old."

"Well, if that's not the problem, then what is?" She breezily walked behind him and stood up on her tiptoes so that her mouth was level with his ear. Her breath on his neck made him break out in goosebumps. "Maybe that great big gun of yours is just for show, then. All talk and no action?"

His mouth went dry. Where the _hell_ had she learned to say something in that half-purring, breathless way? Swallowing hard, he turned to stare at her. "Fine, you asked for it. Get whatever you need, we're heading out in five minutes."

And exactly five minutes later, Rikku was standing at the front bridge and watching Gippal carefully count out pre-loaded cartridges of ammunition. He had one pistol hanging from a leather shoulder holster and another in his hands. After making sure that it was in working order, he put it in the empty holster under his left arm. "That all you taking?" he asked, looking at her outfit.

"I've got all I need," she assured him, patting the leather pouch at her waist. Inside were several vials of potions for any injuries that she was certain would happen, plus a few garment grids already pre-programmed with helpful spheres if things got really tricky. Tugging on the ribbon she had wrapped around her wrist, she pulled out both of her knives. "Good to go, boss."

"Just remember that. If things get too bad and I tell you to get lost, you do it."

Rikku casually spun one of her knives around. "Oh, I'll remember who I'm working for. You're going to be paying me an obscene amount of gil for this."

She heard him mutter something as she walked away from him about apples not falling far from trees, but she decided to ignore it.

Several hours later, she was sweaty, tired, and bleeding pretty badly from her shin. The bleeding didn't have anything to do with a fiend attack, but rather from stumbling back at the end of the day and tripping on the temple's front steps.

"Owie," she hissed, sitting back on the steps, too tired to do anything but watch as a thin trail of blood slowly ran down her leg and into her boot.

"Wimp," Gippal teased, reaching out to take her hands and pull her to her feet. "You can slice a fiend in two, but a little scrape just about kills you."

"You go scrape your knee and see how bad it feels," she grumbled, not in the mood to deal with their usual banter. She had thought that by asking him to come with her, that he would take the "I'm a macho man" route and tackle the majority of the monsters that came their way.

She really should have known better. This was Gippal, after all. He let her deal with the majority of them while he tinkered around with some type of machinery that was scattered along the road at even intervals. He later explained that they were anti-fiend fields that emitted a high frequency sound that acted as a deterrent. He'd gotten the idea from Rin, who had several circling his numerous travel agencies. Once all of them were on, then it would create a fiend-proof fence all around the temple, the road leading up to it, and several of the worksites along the beach below. Rikku thought it was a good idea, even if it meant that after he was finished activating each device, _then_ he jumped into the fight. Nine times out of ten, she had already hurt the fiends badly enough that he was only left with the finishing blow.

It wasn't that she was upset about having to do most of the work herself, but she had hoped he'd take on more. Her knives were going to have to be sharpened and she thought that she had chipped the tip of the blade that came with her warrior dress sphere. Not to mention that she forgot that several elementals roamed around, and the ends of her hair were never going to be the same. She didn't think deep conditioning would even help the now charred strands.

"I'll take your word on it," he told her, wrapping an arm around her waist to help her hobble towards her room. "Hit the showers, kiddo, then we'll see about that leg."

Rikku had to admit, after spending a good hour with hot water beating down her back, she felt tons better. Her scrape had long stopped bleeding, but now that it was clean, it looked all ragged and horrible. She left her now dried – and trimmed, she wound up taking scissors to the burnt ends – hair down over her shoulders and wrapped one of the big, fluffy towels she'd found in the bathroom around her body. She was humming quietly to herself while digging in her pack for a clean change of clothing. Really, things were looking up.

"How's your shin?"

Rikku bit back a scream and whirled around, her hands clutching her towel. "Gippal! Didn't anyone teach you to _knock_?"

He grinned back at her from where he was reclining on her bed. "Yeah, but I chose to ignore them."

"Well, you can get lost while I get dressed." She loosened the death grip she had on her towel with one hand and gestured towards the room's main door. "Out."

"Nope." He smirked at her and made himself even more comfortable against the pillows.

"Fine. If you won't leave, then I will." She picked up her satchel by the straps and marched back into the bathroom.

"Spoilsport," she heard Gippal say through the door. She rolled her eyes and hurriedly dressed.

"Well, from the way you ran out of here, it looks like your leg is doing okay." Gippal stood up and walked towards her. "If it hadn't have been, then I would have left."

Rikku opened her mouth to say something, but shut it because she couldn't think of anything to say. "Well, it's doing fine, so now if you'd like to discuss the terms of payment…" She hoped that going in a professional direction would distract her from how flustered she was starting to become.

He shrugged. "First, I want to take care of this scrape. It looks painful."

"It kind of hurts." She followed him back into the bathroom where she watched him rummage through cabinets until he came up with a first aid kit. She boosted herself up onto the counter and swung her uninjured leg.

Gippal knelt and carefully felt around the raw edges with his fingers. "I think you'll live." Opening the kit, he took out some ointment and a few cotton balls.

"Oh, you're _not_ going to use that burning stuff," Rikku protested, watching as he opened up a dark brown bottle and poured a bit of the clear liquid onto the cotton balls.

"Don't be such a big baby," he joked, taking hold of her calf to hold her leg still. "It burns because it works."

Rikku clamped her lips tightly together to muffle the pained yelp that followed.

"There, I'm finished." Bending his head so that her shin was at eye level, Gippal gently blew on the scrape. "Everything else is pain-free, I promise." His fingers made soothing circles behind her knee.

Meanwhile, Rikku was all too aware that the object of her childhood crush – oh who was she kidding, she was _still_ madly in love with him – was very much into her personal space. His hands were oh so warm against her leg and the shorts she had pulled on were really, really short. "Gippal," she started, stopping when she realized that his name came out sounding breathless and needy.

"Hmm?" He didn't look up from applying a bit of ointment and then covering the scrape with a plain beige bandage. She would have liked a bright green one, but she didn't think that he had any in his kit.

"About that payment…" She looked down at him and then had to look away, her cheeks hot.

Still kneeling, he busied himself by putting everything back into the kit. "Oh, yeah. You said you were looking for an obscene amount of money. How obscene are we talking here? Just _sort_ of naughty or really down and dirty?" He pitched his voice an octave lower than usual and gave her a stare that normally had women on the receiving end giggling uncontrollably. Rikku, on the other hand, stared back at him and bit her bottom lip. The gesture made him stare at her mouth and he wondered if he had lost control of the light flirting banter a few exits back.

"Well," Rikku said, clearing her throat. "I was thinking, since we're friends and everything," she took a breath when Gippal's fingers slid behind her knee again. "It wouldn't be right to ask for money."

"So, what do you propose?" he asked, as if they were sitting back in his office and he wasn't slowly being drawn in by the crisp citrus scent from her soap that wafted off her skin, or that he was still stroking her leg even though there really wasn't a reason to any more.

"How about a thank-you and a kiss instead?"

His head snapped up and he looked at her face, really looked at it. She was staring down at him in a way that could only be described as hungry and he knew exactly how he felt about her. If he took her up on her offer the way that he really, _really_ wanted to, then he was afraid that she wouldn't think that he was serious about starting anything between them. And if he read anything into what had just happened in the past five minutes, then she wanted something to start between them as well.

"I think I can handle that," he told her huskily. "Thank you for getting rid of my fiend problem." Then he bent his head down and pressed an innocent kiss directly over her bandage. "And I believe that means our agreement has now been paid in full."

He left her sputtering in the bathroom. When he heard her bare feet hit the stone floor, he quickly navigated his way through the bedroom and out the door. "That wasn't what I meant!" he heard her yell, followed by a muffled thump that sounded suspiciously like her boot hitting the door he was now leaning against. He grinned to himself. No, that wasn't what she meant and he knew it. Pushing off the door, he couldn't help but whistle. Pursuing Rikku was going to be fun.


	28. Please

Title: Please  
Rating: G  
Challenge: ass kissing not required but appreciated  
Note: Happy birthday, theoreticalpixy!

* * *

"_That_ is a great looking outfit."

"Thanks, I just got it."

"No, I mean, seriously. It really brings out the color of your eyes. Very pretty eyes, I might add."

"I dunno, they're pretty much the same as every other Al Bhed. You know, all green and swirly?"

"No, no, they're different. I really like your eyes."

Rikku sighed and rolled her aforementioned pretty eyes. "Gippal, what is it that you want? I'm kinda running on a tight schedule as it is." She was supposed to get the latest shipment of machina from Djose and back to the ship that was waiting on the shore. Just six months after her cousin had brought about the latest Calm – the Eternal Calm, people were already calling it – her father and several other like-minded individuals had decided to go around Spira and start educating the everyday person on machina now that the taboo on the subject had been lifted. It was fun, especially since most of the people there were treating the things that she had been using since she was a kid with absolute awe. Really, she couldn't understand why people were getting so excited about a mechanical toothbrush.

But if she didn't hurry up with this latest supply, Pops was going to kill her. She really didn't have any time to spare for whatever Gippal was fishing around with.

"Be my girlfriend."

Her eyes widened. "_What_?"

He held out his hands in front of him. "Only for ten minutes! I really, _really_ need you to do this for me. There's this new girl from Luca that decided to join the Faction and ever since she's been here, she's been trying to flirt with me. I already told her that I'm not interested in her, but she won't give up." He rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. "I was kinda hoping that if she saw that I was involved in someone that she'd go away."

Rikku couldn't help it. She burst out laughing. "I'm sorry, Gippal," she gasped, wiping at her eyes while she bit back giggles. "But it's really hard to imagine someone that had all the girls following him back at Home having problems with some Yevonite stalker-girl."

"It's different," Gippal sounded affronted. "She's _scary_."

"Is she around?"

"Yeah, she's down there, getting ready to head out to the desert. I figured that if I couldn't get rid of her any other way, then I might as well send her as far away as possible." He pointed down towards a tent where there was a girl around Rikku's age standing around with a bunch of other people. Just then, she looked up at them with such an adoring look in her eyes that Rikku had to grimace.

"Okay, you got me. The girl is odd. But I still don't see…"

Gippal grabbed onto Rikku's hand. "She snuck into my bedroom last night. Please, Rikku. Do this for me."

She was having too much fun. "I don't know…"

"Did I mention how gorgeous you look? Because you do. Those beads really make your hair all…" he searched for a word. "Shimmery."

"That was awful, Gippal."

"I know." He followed her as she walked away towards the bridges. "I'm not used to begging, give me a break."

They were getting closer and closer to the tent. Rikku sighed and put down her boxes. "Here's a helpful hint then."

"What?"

She reached out and grabbed two fistfuls of his shirt in her hands. "Ass kissing is not required." She stood up on tiptoes and brushed her mouth against his. "But it is appreciated." She slanted her mouth harder over his and plastered herself against him. She really did pick a good time to decide to change her outfit, the bikini top and low slung skirt let her feel every inch of Gippal that she was pressed against. His hands were rough with calluses but warm where he splayed his palm at the small of her back and where he cupped the back of her neck. Applause had broken out from the other workers, but the two of them didn't give a damn.

"Wow," he breathed over her lips, his hands staying where they were.

"Yeah." She sank down on her heels, her fingers running over his shirt. "Though boyfriends don't usually look so poleaxed when their girlfriends kiss them."

"That's because all other boyfriends didn't have you as a girlfriend."

She bent to pick up her boxes. "So I'll see you in a couple of weeks?"

He reached out and plucked a box from her hands. "Now what kind of guy would let his girl walk off without offering to help?" He used one hand to hold the box against his side and wound his free hand around her waist.

"Think that did the trick?"

Gippal looked over his shoulder at the worker. She smiled huge and gave him a thumbs up. Really, he was going to have to bump up her wages for agreeing to play the part of lovesick girl. "Who cares," he said instead, kissing the crown of Rikku's hair. "Are you free for dinner tonight?"


	29. Roughing It

Title: Roughing It  
Rating: G  
Challenge: Chagrin, Cold, Camp  
Note: Happy birthday, justhavefaith!

* * *

Rikku glared at him and propped the tent roof up with her hand.

"I'm sorry." She gave him one of the coldest looks he had ever seen her give anyone. "Really, I am."

It didn't work, so he tried to give her his best chagrined, "please forgive me" smile. "If there's any way I could make it up to you…"

Just then, the tent roof decided to burst under the pressure of the pouring rain outside. Unfortunately, it broke right over Rikku's head. "Next time," she hissed, drenched to the bone, "check the weather before you decide to camp outdoors."


End file.
